Maurice Allais
Facts
Photo from the Nobel Foundation archive.
Maurice Allais
The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1988
Born: 31 May 1911, Paris, France
Died: 9 October 2010, Paris, France
Affiliation at the time of the award: École Nationale Supérieur des Mines de Paris, Paris, France
Prize motivation: “for his pioneering contributions to the theory of markets and efficient utilization of resources”
Prize share: 1/1
Life
Maurice Allais was born in Paris, France. He graduated from the École Polythechnique in Paris and the École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris. Initially dedicated to physics, he published several works on pendular oscillations and the laws of gravitation. A journey to the United States in the 1930s under the Great Depression made a lasting impression on him, and set him to study economics and he published his groundbreaking works in the 1940s.
Work
Author of several theoretical and applied economic studies, Allais’ work focused on the development of mathematical economics, especially in the fields of general equilibrium theory, capital theory, decision theory and monetary policy. In his groundbreaking work, Allais sought to balance social benefits with economic efficiency in the pricing plans of state-owned monopolies, such as utility companies.
Nobel Prizes and laureates
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