Economics Nobel Prize winner Jean Tirole reveals in an exclusive interview with finews.first how the prize changed his life, monopolies can be tamed and how regulation should strike a balance between inefficient laissez-faire and intrusive measures.
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Jean Tirole, when did you realize that you could possibly win the «Economics Nobel Prize» in 2014?
When I received the call from the Swedish Royal Academy 45 minutes before the official announcement. There are lots of rumors in the profession, but none stemming from the Academy itself and so those rumors are highly unreliable.
What has changed for you since then?
It has brought me a sense of responsibility for communicating about my field. Before the «Nobel», I spoke to economists and experts in ministries, regulatory authorities, companies. The «Nobel» was a tipping point.
Why?
I met quite a number of people, sometimes just unknown people in the street, who simultaneously demonstrated a real interest in and many questions about what economists do, whether they are useful, whether economics is a science, whether the key challenges we face can be solved. They made me aware of my responsibility to step out of my laboratory to explain my job, and share more of my knowledge; without being a news commentator. But by simply talking about what economic research has to say about our world.
I otherwise have tried to keep the same life as before, and I spend as much time as I can on research and teaching.
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