A sixty one year, the president of the Toulouse School of Economics yesterday received the Nobel Prize in Economics. A consecration for polytechnic which is one of ten researchers in economics most often cited by their peers
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Gentil, curious and shy … Jean Tirole has not changed. That was two weeks ago at Bazacle this strange place where the Garonne in Toulouse seems down a step, which was formerly owned mills, where EDF turned an old turbine over a century. Earlier in the afternoon, who was only a Nobel Prize in power had discussed with Chinese colleagues environmental challenges of growth before Laurent Fabius, Minister of Foreign Affairs, in full preparation for the summit to be held in Paris in late 2015 he had explained how he had to make the political economy in the climate negotiations, give money to developing countries in exchange for their efforts. The minister listened attentively. Then the minister went to inaugurate an exhibition of Chinese photos Bazacle Space EDF, in Proglio, the boss of the state-owned company.
In the cocktail below, between country ham and local wine, the economist asks the news reporter of the press. It is given, of course, even if they are not flamboyant. To him, it’s not very complicated to explain the change in “business model” of the trade. He analyzed long products “bifacial” that sell for two clients: the newspaper to readers and advertisers, the credit card to the customer and the merchant. When two clients are becoming scarce, balance becomes less easy … jesuitically, is told by asking him about economics: she manages to sell to policy makers? Jean Tirole is not very optimistic. “90% of our work are not interested …” Yes, but if there is 10%, that’s something, right? “Yes, of course it is also essential! “
This is a little drama to Jean Tirole: he is kind, curious, shy … and theorist. It has all the conceptual, nothing pragmatic. A fairly common among French Minds, like his past Polytechnique (where he discovered economics, twenty-one) and the School of Bridges and Roads after a childhood in Troyes, where his father was doctor and his mother a teacher of literature. The major American universities love these synthetic profiles mathematicians and open to the world, they would gladly come by if large integers charter schools in the Republic did not have this strange Malthusian policy. At twenty-five, he went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the prestigious MIT (“mite” as give the mayor of Toulouse in a reception), which the employee is one of the best teams in the world of economists – Robert Solow Paul Samuelson among the ancients, Olivier Blanchard, who will be a long post. And also French.
A good man surrounded
Young Tirole discover new theories and games information with Eric Maskin (who has the Nobel in 2007). He worked with Jean-Jacques Laffont on an area where the French researchers often shone – the big network industries such as electricity (where there are EDF and its former president, Marcel Boiteux, famous economist). How to better regulate these mammoths, encourage them to become more efficient, the push to give information to the regulators so they can better ensure their tutelage? This is of course very theoretical work with equations and curves everywhere. The book he published in 1993 with Laffont, “A Theory of Incentives in Procurement and Regulation” (A theory of incentives in procurement and regulation “) attests. But it is also very very concrete political issues. Both men are viewed around the world by countries that privatize their telecommunications, opening up the electricity to competition …
In this economy both very mathematical and very open to the Council, Jean Tirole shines. He also works on finance, soon on the Internet. A sixty-one years, he has written nearly 200 scholarly articles, many of which were published in the best journals. The researcher is part of the ten most cited economists in the world by their peers in academic articles, alongside Robert Lucas and Joseph Stiglitz. Stiglitz a Nobel award before him, in 2001, for works that are part of the same lineage – information asymmetries. And he invited academic days top flight organized by the Toulouse School of Economics in June. But Stiglitz, he had shared his prize with two other researchers, Michael Spence and George Akerlof.
This excellent production of both, according to his peers, and plentiful, see the long list of publications, ensures high reputation in the academic world. Upon receiving the gold medal of the CNRS in 2007, Eric Maskin traveled the United States to give a speech. He explains with humor that is not possible that one man could have written all that, and Jean Tirole therefore does not exist. This is true in any case … in public opinion, where Jean Tirole remains a stranger. Shy is much more comfortable in academic circles. And his reserve, his rigor also prevent him from going to a wide audience which must be simplified, perhaps betraying his eyes.
The Toulouse School of Economics
Normally, Jean Tirole should have stayed in the United States, as did Olivier Blanchard. But in 1991, he went to Toulouse to finish his book with Laffont, which is in the region. His friend tells him his plan. He wants to create a global economy pole. In France, in the province, the university … It is a triple challenge. Laffont tells him he needs him. Tirole hesitates. The intellectual ferment of MIT, the schmoozing, the door always open the biggest risk missing him. But one day … Jean-Jacques Laffont, visiting Paris, exults: “That’s it! Jean accepted! “ He knows that his project is there a great accelerator. Tirole landed at the Institute of Industrial Economics, created by Laffont, already with a small team of talented researchers. He lives in a nice house in the area, comes to institute bike. He agreed to become Editor. Unlike Laffont, he is reluctant to take responsibility, which may take him to his time. Shyness, again and again. The will also continue his work.
But Jean-Jacques Laffont’s died of cancer, “blasted on the rise,” as it says in one of his relatives before leaving. The Institute is reorganized. It will be the birthplace of what would become the Toulouse School of Economics, with dozens of researchers in economics. To convince patrons including Tirole agrees to take the presidency of Jean-Jacques Laffont Foundation, which oversees the complicated construction of the university Toulouse School of Economics. End of 2012, we interviewed in “Les Echos”. He criticizes a finance which had become bloated. He questions what at bottom liquidity. He explains that “as the bubbles do not burst, they can have beneficial effects. There is more liquidity in the financial system investments, more … but more nonsense about money easy “. Should we indicate he is president of the foundation? Slice it in writing: no, “President of the Toulouse School of Economics’ . He crossed the line
brilliant theorist, difficult to overcome shyness. Tirole not surprising that is not very comfortable in the policy-making, it needs yet convince. Emmanuel Macron, the Minister of Economy, praised his prestigious award by a simple tweet, more than an hour after the announcement. Tirole is certainly part of the Council of Economic Advisers, under the Prime Minister. He helped notes on Medicare, bankruptcy law, the institutions of the eurozone, reports on intellectual property, employment, Olivier Blanchard. We still remember the meeting with two researchers at the Procope, boulevard du Montparnasse. Blanchard was very comfortable, very learned, upright in his chair. Tirole sat a little sideways on the seat, without a word almost. Maybe he could now emerge in an advanced report proposal, which is still relevant, even to whisper in the ear of Emmanuel Macron: a tax on layoffs, so that companies have a greater awareness of their cost for the community, with “less intrusive judges in dismissal procedures” . The theory of incentives applied to the labor market … Meanwhile, it was “deeply moved” to have the Nobel Prize jury on the phone. And he spoke of “big surprise” AFP. A big surprise for him, not for those who know him. A surprise that will allow it perhaps to break free.
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