Frenchman Jean Tirole of the Toulouse School of Economics has won this year's Nobel Prize in Economics. This was the first economics prize without an American winner since 1999, reports GHN based on DW.
The Nobel Prize in Economics has gone to French economist Jean Tirole for his analysis on market power and regulation, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced in Stockholm Monday.
The committee cited Tirole for clarifying "how to understand and regulate industries with a few powerful firms," adding this year's prize is about taming powerful firms.
"Jean Tirole is one of the most influential economists of our time," the Academy said. "Most of all he has clarified how to understand and regulate industries with a few powerful firms."
The 61-year-old Troyes native said he was "very honored" and "moved" upon winning the 2014 Nobel Prize in Economics, while talking on the telephone to reporters during the announcement.
Tirole is the sole winner of this year's prize - a contrast to previous years, as the prize is often shared by two to three economists. Last year, the honor was shared by Eugene F. Fama and Lars Peter Hansen, both of the University of Chicago, and Robert J Shiller, of Yale University, for their work in analyzing asset prices.
This year's economics prize is the first time since 1999 without an American winner.
The scientific director of Industrial Economics Institute (IDEI) in Toulouse, Tirole developed his ideas about the impact of regulation on industrial organizations using game theory.
His research demonstrated how market regulations should be carefully adapted to the conditions of specific industries, rather than general regulations such as price caps, which can do more hard than good, according to the Academy.
"From the mid-1980s and onwards, Jean Tirole has breathed new life into research on such market failures," the Academy said, noting his work has strong bearing on how governments deal with mergers or cartels and how they should regulate monopolies.
"In a series of articles and books, Jean Tirole has presented a general framework for designing such policies and applied it to a number of industries, ranging from telecommunications to banking," the Academy added.