the essential
The famous “Jean-Jacques Laffont” founding prize of the Toulouse School of Economics (TSE) will be awarded at the Capitole de Toulouse on October 10.
Michael Whinston will be honored with the Jean-Jacques Laffont 2024 prize this Thursday, October 10 in the Salle des Illustres of the Capitole de Toulouse. This American economic researcher is therefore the 17th economist to receive this prize which was created in 2005 by the Toulouse School of Economics (TSE) to reward a world-renowned economist whose research is part of the legacy of Professor Jean-Jacques Laffont, founder of the TSE.
An exceptional journey
Aged 65, the American is distinguished for his work in microeconomics, particularly on industrial organization, health and insurance. Michael Whinston has had an exceptional career: after obtaining a bachelor’s degree in economics and an MBA in finance at Wharton (University of Pennsylvania), he obtained a doctorate in economics at MIT in 1984. He then began teaching at Harvard as a assistant professor then full professor until 1998, when he joined Northwestern University. Since 2013, he has been Sloan Fellows Professor of Management and professor of economics at MIT.
“It was a very nice surprise to learn that I had received this award. I have had a special connection with Toulouse and TSE for some time now. I was part of the Toulouse Network for Information Technology (TNIT) and when I was at Northwestern, I helped set up an exchange partnership with TSE, with an annual conference that alternated between the two institutions,” responded the researcher. TSE now has 150 teacher-researchers, including Jean Tirole, 2014 Nobel Prize in Economics,
