Jean Tirole wins the 2014 Nobel Prize in Economics.

Jean Tirole, a long time CEPR Fellow, received the award for his work on regulating large firms. His work has played a major role in shaping competition policy and mergers control as well as in the analysis of how regulation of large firms can help defend consumers’ interest.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which awards the Nobel Prize, explained that the study of mergers, cartels, and monopoly regulation has become much more important since the 1980s, when governments began to deregulate ‘natural monopolies’ - made more significant by the rise of the EU single market. Jean Tirole and his colleagues’ work has played a major role in this field.

The awarding jury said Jean Tirole was “one of the most influential economists of our time”, and that his work helped to show that methods formerly used by governments such as capping prices and banning cooperation were sometimes more harmful than helpful.