French economist wins Nobel prize
Jean Tirole joins French writer Patrick Modiano on the list of 2014 Nobel laureates
THE economist Jean Tirole has become the second Frenchman to receive a Nobel prize this year.
Mr Tirole, 61, was awarded the prize yesterday for his work in economics, which centres on theories to describe business monopolies and government regulation.
His work examines how companies grow and how their practices can become damaging to the wider market and economy.
Last week the Nobel committee in Stockholm announced that the French writer Patrick Modiano, 69, would receive this year’s prize for literature.
Mr Modiano won the Prix Goncourt in 1978 for Rue des Boutiques Obscures. Key themes in his work are the Holocaust, the French occupation and Jewishness.
The Nobel Academy said he had been chosen “for the art of memory with which he has evoked the most ungraspable human destinies and uncovered the life-world of the occupation”.
The two awards prompted one economist to note that John Lewis boss Andy Street (who recently branded the country “hopeless and downbeat”) had yet to make a comment.
Tirole received congratulations from PM Manuel Valls and the former finance minister, now European Commissioner Pierre Moscovici.
Photo: Jean Tirole by Mme Tirole - IDEI
