STOCKHOLM: French economist Jean Tirole grabbed the Nobel Economics Prize for his analysis of big companies, market power and regulation.
Tirole is “one of the most influential economists of our time,” the Royal Academy of Sciences said.
One of the chief contributions of 61-year-old Tirole is the insight that market dominance works differently in different industries, according to the jury.
It noted that undercutting prices has traditionally been disciplined under competition, or anti-trust, law, because setting prices below production costs is one way of getting rid of competitors — but this is not necessarily true of all markets.
The jury argued that Tirole’s work has provided a framework for designing policies for a number of industries, ranging from telecommunications to banking.
The citation comes amid growing controversy over the market power of such companies as Amazon and Google.
The prize will be awarded at a ceremony in Stockholm on December 10, the anniversary of the death in 1896 of the prizes’ creator, Swedish scientist and philanthropist Alfred Nobel.
The economics prize is the only Nobel not originally included in Nobel’s last will and testament.
It was established in 1968 by the Swedish central bank to celebrate its tricentenary, and first awarded in 1969. The other prizes have been awarded since 1901.
The award of this year’s prize to a French national marked a departure from American dominance on the list of laureates.
Over the past decade, 18 out 20 economics prize laureates have been from the United States, including one Israeli-American.
Last year, US scholars Eugene Fama, Lars Peter Hansen and Robert Shiller won for their work on spotting trends in the asset markets.
The economics prize winds up this year’s Nobel season, marked the award of the peace prize to 17-year-old Pakistani Malala Yousafzai and India’s Kailash Satyarthi, and the literature prize to French writer Patrick Modiano.
