Allais, Maurice

(1911- )

   economist

   A neoliberal economist, Maurice Allais was born in paris, where he studied at the École polytechnique and at the École nationale supérieure des Mines. He joined the state mine administration in 1937 and became a professor at the École nationale des mines in 1944. Later appointed director of research at the National French Research Council, he was named an officer of the legion of honor in 1977. In 1988 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in economic science for his contribution to the study of markets and the effective use of resources. He was the first French citizen to receive the prize in that category. His work is considered to have helped improve the economic and social efficiency of state-run monopolies, which largely developed in western Europe after World War II. Allais demonstrated that, even with a monopoly, optimum prices could be found that would be socially efficient. His principle that price, rather than state regulation, should guide the planning of state monopolies became essential to the running of such institutions. Even after the 1980s trend towards privatization, his work continued to be applied to such private and monopolistic public-service enterprises as the English Channel tunnel project. Allais's work has now gained wide international recognition.