Frenchman Jean Tirole wins Economics Nobel

Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences, as the Nobel Prize for Economics is known officialy is awarded to French economist Jean Tirole “for his analysis of market power and regulation”, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced Monday.

The Academy cited Tirole for clarifying "how to understand and regulate industries with a few powerful firms." Being “one of the most influential economists of our time”, Jean Tirole “has made important theoretical research contributions in a number of areas, but most of all he has clarified how to understand and regulate industries with a few powerful firms”, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in its statement.

According to the statement, “the best regulation or competition policy should be carefully adapted to every industry’s specific conditions”. Tirole has, in a series of articles and books, presented a general framework for designing such policies and applied it to a number of industries, ranging from telecommunications to banking.

Drawing on these new insights, governments can better encourage powerful firms to become more productive and, at the same time, prevent them from harming competitors and customers, according to the statement.

61-year-old Tirole, who works at the Toulouse School of Economics in France, was overwhelmed at the news. The Frenchman said, he was “so moved” upon being awarded this year’s economics prize. Addressing media, Tirole commented on the regulation on the banking industry globally and said that governments “have to do more”, especially in terms of regulations on the liquidity. But he also emphasised that regulation as such “has to be light enough so as not to thwart entrepreneurship”, and that governments should “intervene only when necessary”.

With the announcement The Nobel Economics award the 2014 Nobel awards, which started last week  comes to an end.

This year's Nobel Prize announcements started last Monday with a U.S.-British scientist splitting the medicine prize with a Norwegian husband-and-wife team for brain research that could pave the way for a better understanding of diseases like Alzheimer's.

Two Japanese researchers and a Japanese-born American won the physics prize for the invention of blue light-emitting diodes, a breakthrough that spurred the development of LED as a new light source.

The chemistry prize on Wednesday went to two Americans and a German researcher who found new ways to give microscopes sharper vision, letting scientists peer into living cells with unprecedented detail to seek the roots of disease.

The Nobel Peace Prize 2014 was awarded jointly on Friday to Kailash Satyarthi  of India and Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan "for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education".