Career
After receiving his PhD from MIT in 1981, he worked as a researcher at l'École nationale des ponts et chaussées until 1984. From 1984-1991 he worked as a Professor of Economics at MIT. He was president of the Econometric Society in 1998 and of the European Economic Association in 2001. He is still affiliated with MIT, where he holds a visiting position.
His engineering degrees Tirole received from the École Polytechnique in Paris in 1976, and from École nationale des ponts et chaussées, Paris (1978). He also received a "Doctorat de 3ème cycle" in decision mathematics from the Paris Dauphine University (1978). In 1981 he received his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Jean Tirole received a lot of rewards. Doctorates Honoris Causa from the Free University of Brussels in 1989 and the London Business School in 2007, the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Economics, Finance and Management category in 2008, the Public Utility Research Center Distinguished Service Award (University of Florida) in 1997, and the Yrjö Jahnsson Award of the Yrjö Jahnsson Foundation and the European Economic Association in 1993 are among of them. He is a foreign honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1993) and of the American Economic Association (1993). Tirole has also been a Sloan Fellow (1985) and a Guggenheim Fellow (1988). In 2007 was awarded the highest award (the Gold Medal or médaille d'or) of the French CNRS. In 2012, he was awarded an honorary degree from the university of Rome Tor Vergata.
According to IDEAS/RePEc, Jean Tirole is among the most influential economists in the world.
He has given several prestigious invited lectures, including the Hicks lecture (Oxford 1992), the Walras-Pareto lectures (Lausanne 1992), the Schumpeter lecture (European Economic Association 1993), the Pazner lecture (Tel Aviv 1993), the Walras-Bowley lecture (Econometric Society 1994), the Munich lectures (Munich 1996),the JMCB lecture(1999), the Wicksell lectures(1999), the Baffi lectures (Bank of Italy, 2000), the Scribner lectures and the Frank Graham lecture at Princeton (2002), the Marshall lectures in Cambridge (2003), the Tinbergen lecture in Amsterdam (2003), the David Kinley lectures at University of Illinois (2005), the inaugural JEEA lecture (2005), the inaugural Telecom Italia lecture (Milan, 2005), the Snyder lecture (UCSB, 2005) and the Rosenthal lecture (BU 2006).
Jean Tirole has published about one hundred eighty professional articles in economics and finance, as well as 11 books including The Theory of Industrial Organization, Game Theory (with Drew Fudenberg), A Theory of Incentives in Procurement and Regulation (with Jean-Jacques Laffont), The Prudential Regulation of Banks (with Mathias Dewatripont), Competition in Telecommunications (with Jean-Jacques Laffont), Financial Crises, Liquidity, and the International Monetary System, and The Theory of Corporate Finance. His research covers industrial organization, regulation, game theory, banking and finance, psychology and economics, international finance and macroeconomics.
Current Position:
Chairman of the Board, Fondation Jean-Jacques Laffont/Toulouse Sciences Economiques;
•Scientific Director, IDEI, Toulouse;
•Ingénieur Général des Ponts et Chaussées;
•Visiting Professor, Department of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology;
•Directeur d'Etudes Cumulant, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales;
•Member of the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques.
Academic Positions:
•1984-1992:Associate Professor of Economics, and then Professor of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology;
•1989 (Spring): Taussig Visiting Professor of Economics, Harvard University;
•1981-1984:Researcher; CERAS, Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées;
•1994-1996 : Professeur, Ecole Polytechnique;
•Visiting Professor; ENSAE, University of Lausanne, and Wuhan University;
•Visiting Scholar; Stanford University (Spring 1983), Princeton University (Spring 2002).
Non-academic Positions:
•1984-1999: Associate Editor, Econometrica;
•1986-1994: Foreign Editor, Review of Economic Studies;
•1994-1996: Associate Editor, Review of Economic Studies;
Member of Program Committee, Econometric Society Meetings: European Meeting, 1983;
North American Winter Meeting, 1987; World Congress, 1990;
•1990:Chairman, North American Winter Meetings, Econometric Society;
•1991-1999: Council Member, Econometric Society;
•1993-1999: Member of the Executive Committee, Econometric Society;
•1990-1995: Senior Fellow, Institute for Policy Reform;
•1997-1998: Member of Access Charges Committee, Réseau Ferré de France;
•1998: President, Econometric Society;
•1999: Member of Electricity Pricing Committee, Ministère de l’Economie, Paris;
•1999-2006, 2008-: Member of the French Council of Economic Advisors (Conseil d'Analyse Economique);
•2001: President, European Economic Association;
•2002: Inaugural Fellow of European Corporate Governance Institute;
•2006-2009: Member of the French High Council for Science and Technology (Haut Conseil de la Science et la Technologie);
•2007-: Member of European Research Council panel;
•2008-2010: Member of "Comité de Suivi de la LRU" (Libertés et Responsabilités des Universités).
Fields of Interest:
•Industrial Organization;
•Regulation;
•Organization Theory;
•Game Theory;
•Finance;
•Macroeconomics;
•Economics and Psychology.
