2014 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences

The 2014 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences has been awarded to Jean Tirole. The prize was announced by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm on 13 October 2014.

The citation

The citation reads: "for his analysis of market power and regulation".

The laureate

Jean Tirole was born in 1953 in Troyes, France, and is affiliated with Toulouse School of Economics (TSE), Toulouse.

Why it matters

Tirole showed how to regulate industries dominated by a few powerful firms, such as telecoms and banking, in ways that suit the particular industry.

The prize

The prize is worth 8 million Swedish kronor. It will be presented at a ceremony in Stockholm on 10 December, the anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor of dynamite whose will founded the prizes in 1895. Strictly, this award is the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. It was established by the Swedish central bank in 1968, but is presented alongside the Nobel Prizes.