Jean Tirole of France wins Nobel Prize for economics for “taming powerful firms”

Tuesday, 14 October 2014 02:05 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Reuters: French economist Jean Tirole has won the 2014 Nobel Prize for economics for his work in “taming powerful firms.” In awarding the 8 million Swedish crown ($1.1 million) prize, Staffan Normark, Permanent Secretary of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said that Tirole has clarified policies about regulating industries with a few powerful firms, especially after a wave of privatizations had set governments a conundrum over how to encourage private investments in sectors like healthcare and railways while reining in profits. “My one merit is to have been with the right people at the right time,” the 61-year-old, who is unknown to most French, told Reuters in his office at

the Toulouse School of Economics in southwest France, where he is a professor. It was the second Nobel Prize for a French national this year after author Patrick Modiano won the literature award - a fact not lost on Prime Minister Manuel Valls, trying to deflect attacks from France’s EU partners over its battered public finances.