Maurice Allais

Maurice Allais was a French economist and physicist who made significant contributions to the fields of general equilibrium theory, capital theory, decision theory and monetary policy. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 1988 for his pioneering work on the theory of markets and efficient utilization of resources. He was also interested in the sciences of the concrete and conducted experiments on pendular oscillations and the laws of gravitation, challenging some of the postulates of contemporary physics. He was a strong advocate of European integration and a critic of the excessive use of mathematical models in economics. Allais was born on May 31, 1911, in Paris, France. His parents owned a small cheese shop, and his maternal grandfather was a carpentry worker. He came from a modest working-class background and lost his father in World War I when he was only four years old. He was able to pursue his secondary studies with the help of scholarships and showed exceptional talent in both humanities and sciences. He received his high school baccalaureate diploma in Latin and Science in 1928, then his two baccalaureate diplomas in Mathematics and Philosophy in 1929. He entered the École Polytechnique in 1931 and graduated first in his class in 1933. He then chose to join the Corps National des Mines, a prestigious civil service branch that offered him career opportunities in large industrial enterprises. He completed his postgraduate studies at the École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris and became an engineer in the mines public service in 1936. He was also interested in history and physics and published several works on these subjects. In 1937, he was put in charge of the Nantes Mines and Quarries Service, which included five departments and various controls, such as that of the railway system. In 1939, he was called back to the Alpine Army on the Italian front during World War II and commanded a heavy artillery battery. After the armistice with Italy in 1940, he resumed his position in Nantes, which was under German occupation. He had little work to do and decided to teach himself economics by reading books from the local library. He moved to Paris in 1943 and became the director of the Bureau of Mines Documentation and Statistics until 1948. During this period, he also published his first major works on economics, such as A la Recherche d'une Discipline Economique (In Quest of an Economic Discipline) and Economie et Intérêt (Economy and Interest). These works established him as one of the leading economists in France and influenced many others, such as Gérard Debreu, Jacques Lesourne, Edmond Malinvaud and Marcel Boiteux. He became a professor of economics at the École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris in 1944 and remained there until his retirement in 1980. He also founded and directed its Economic Analysis Centre from 1946 to 1988. He held teaching positions at various other institutions, such as the University of Paris X-Nanterre, the Institut de Statistique de l'Université de Paris, the Collège de France and the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris. He received many honors and awards for his academic achievements, such as the Grand Prix Scientifique de la Ville de Paris in 1957, the Gold Medal of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in 1978 and the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 1988. Allais developed original theories on various aspects of economics, such as general equilibrium, capital accumulation, interest rates, money demand, risk aversion, social choice, public goods, externalities, market failures and optimal taxation. He also proposed policy reforms for the efficient allocation of resources and the stabilization of the economy. He advocated a mixed economy with a strong public sector and a social market system. He was critical of the Keynesian and monetarist approaches and favored a rule-based monetary policy that would ensure price stability and full employment. He also supported the European integration and the creation of a common currency. Allais was also a prolific researcher and writer on physics and history. He conducted experiments on pendular oscillations and claimed to have observed anomalous effects that contradicted the theory of relativity and the principle of equivalence. He proposed alternative explanations based on the concept of anisotropic space and a modified law of gravitation. He also wrote several books on the history of science, philosophy, religion and civilization, such as L'Imposture Scientifique en Dix Leçons (The Scientific Imposture in Ten Lessons) and La Mondialisation, la Destruction des Emplois et de la Croissance (Globalization, the Destruction of Jobs and Growth). Allais married Jacqueline Bouteloup in 1960, who was his student and later his collaborator in all his projects. They had one daughter, whose name is not known. He died of natural causes on October 9, 2010, at his home in Saint-Cloud, near Paris, at the age of 99.