Abstract
This study aims to analyze the economic thoughts of engineers, which form “a school,” or one of the intellectual traditions of French economics. The study first clarifies the social factors that enable them to form the school of engineer-economists, their exact theoretical characteristics, and their inheritance and influence relationships. It then shows the characteristics of the economic thought and practices of the second generation of engineer-economists, from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century. In general, French engineer-economists hope to compensate for market dysfunction with weak state intervention; however, there are significant differences between their first and second generations. The aim of the first generation, whose biggest challenge was economic growth through the development of transportation infrastructure, was to establish a method of economic calculations to prove the utility of these projects for an efficient allocation of limited government budgets. Conversely, the challenge of the secondgeneration engineer-economists, who lived in an era where some economic growth had already been achieved and economic disparities were becoming apparent, was to improve the lives of workers and build a harmonious society in which labor and management cooperate. The study further clarifies the content and significance of this "gentle reform" by analyzing the discourse of Cheysson and Colson, who mainly represent the second generation, and their envisioned reformer. Thus, this study attempts a comprehensive evaluation of second-generation engineer-economists in theoretical, applied, and practical fields.
