Advertisement

Frenchman Jean Tirole wins Nobel Prize for economics

Jean Tirole's research reveals a need for industry-specific market regulations

Reading Time:2 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
Nobel winning French economist Jean Tirole. Photo: AFP

French economist Jean Tirole has won this year's Nobel Prize for economics for his analysis of big companies, market power and regulation.

Advertisement

Tirole, the second Frenchman to be honoured this year, is "one of the most influential economists of our time", the jury said of the economist, from Toulouse 1 Capitole University.

"Many industries are dominated by a small number of large firms or a single monopoly.

"Left unregulated, such markets often produce socially undesirable results - prices higher than those motivated by costs, or unproductive firms that survive by blocking the entry of new and more productive ones."

Tirole's research showed that market regulations should be carefully adapted to the conditions of specific industries, rather than general regulations, which can do more harm than good, the academy said.

Advertisement

The jury argued that Tirole's work had provided a framework for designing policies for a number of industries, ranging from telecommunications to banking.

Advertisement