Jean-Jacques Laffont
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Jean-Jacques Marcel Laffont (1947-2004) was a distinguished French economist who specialized in public economics and information theory. Trained at the Ecole Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Administration Economique (ENSAE) in Paris, was professor of Economics at the University of Toulouse I and founding member of the Industrial Economics Institute (Institut D'Economie Industrielle, IDEI) that has become one of the most prominent European research centres in economics, Jean-Jacques Laffont was the author of 17 books and more than 200 articles. Laffont joined the University of Southern California in 2001 as the first holder of the John Elliott Chair in Economics and remained there until his death.
He has brought pioneering contributions in microeconomics and, in particular, in theory of incentives, public economics, theory of regulation, and economics of developing countries. His book entitled " A Theory of Incentives in Procurement and Regulation" (MIT Press, 1993), written with Jean Tirole, is a fundamental reference in the area of the new economics of regulation. More recently, he has published "The Theory of Incentives: the Principal-Agent Model" (Princeton University Press, 2001), written with David Martimort. His last book entitled "Regulation and Development" (Cambridge University Press, 2005) is centered on developing policies for improving the economies of less developed countries.
Jean-Jacques Laffont received many honors: the Silver Medal of the CNRS (1990); the Scientific Prize of the UAP (1991); Honorary Member of the American Economic Association (1991); Foreign Honorary Member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences (1993); best economist of the year award from the Nouvel Economist magazine (1993); and an honorary doctorate from the University of Lausanne (1998). In 1993, he received jointly with Jean Tirole, Scientific Director of IDEI, the Yrjö Jahnsson Award from the Yrjö Jahnsson Foundation and the European Economic Association, awarded biennially to the best European economist under the age of 45. In France, from 1991 to 2001, he was a senior member of the Institut Universitaire de France, a structure which honors the best research professors in France in all disciplines. He has been awarded the French Legion of Honor Officer Medal.
