Which economist published the 1838 book Recherches sur les principes mathématiques de la théorie des richesses?

Antoine Augustin Cournot published the 1838 book Recherches sur les principes mathématiques de la théorie des richesses.

Cournot was a French mathematician and economist whose work helped introduce mathematical analysis into the study of markets. His book examined demand functions, firms’ output decisions, and the interaction between rival producers. Cournot’s analysis of duopoly is especially influential: each firm chooses output while taking the other firm’s output as given.

The book predates the later marginalist revolution associated with William Stanley Jevons, Carl Menger, and Léon Walras. Cournot’s approach used equations to connect price, quantity demanded, production, and competition, helping establish foundations for modern mathematical economics and industrial-organization theory.

Cournot is sometimes confused with economists who popularized graphical supply-and-demand analysis. Alfred Marshall’s Principles of Economics appeared in 1890, while Cournot’s earlier work focused more directly on formal mathematical models. His name also survives in the Cournot competition model and Cournot equilibrium.