Maurice Allais

Maurice Félix Charles Allais [ mɔʀi ː s alɛ ] ( born May 31, 1911 in Paris, † October 9, 2010 Saint-Cloud, near Paris ) was a French engineer and economist. In 1988 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics " for his pioneering contributions to the theory of markets and efficient utilization of resources."

Life

He attended the famous Lycée Lakanal in Sceaux, near Paris. Allais studied at the Ecole Polytechnique and the École nationale supérieure des mines in Paris. There he was, since 1944 Professor of Economics and Director of the Center for Economic Analysis. In 1949 he received his doctorate at the Sorbonne as an engineer.

He also taught at the University of Paris X Nanterre and at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva.

Research in economics

He has published mainly in French, so some of his discoveries were found in economics later by other independent and published as the Overlapping Generations Model and the golden rule of accumulation, both in his book Économie et Intérêt 1947, and early work for behavioral economics. In the 1940s he published on decision theory under uncertainty independent of simultaneous work of John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern.

He is known especially for the Allais paradox ( 1953).

In 1992 he criticized in articles in L' Humanité, the Maastricht Treaty due to excessive focus on free trade and he was also a critic of the introduction of the European single currency.

Pendulum tests and Allais effect

Allais also addressed in the 1950s with physics, specifically gravity experiments with his own specially developed pendulum, a " parakonisches " ( ball bearing ) pendulum that can rotate out of the vibration in two directions also about the vertical axis. He led from long -term experiments on the possible existence of an ether ( anisotropy of the room) and found a periodicity of 24.8 hours (later explained as a possible influence of the moon ). He also found an anomalous behavior of the pendulum during two solar eclipses in 1954 and 1959 ( Allais effect). Later experiments conducted in other groups with other pendulums and gravimeters came to different conclusions: some small anomalies thought to have discovered others found nothing. T. Van Flandern and XS Yang declared 2003 the effects of air currents in the atmosphere during solar eclipses.

Awards

At the age of 22 years, Maurice Allais received the first of many awards that have been awarded to him.

Economics

Most prices and awards received Maurice Allais in economics. Before 1988 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics, he was honored, among others, the following awards and honors:

  • Laplace Prix, 1933 and Prix Rivot the French Academy of Sciences
  • Prix ​​Charles Dupin, 1954, the Académie des sciences morales et politiques for his work " A la recherche d'une discipline économique " (1943 )
  • Frederick W. Lanchester Prize - Johns Hopkins University and the Operations Research Society of America (1958 ) for the 1957 published book " Method of Appraising Economic Prospects of Mining Exploration over Large Territories - Algerian Sahara Case Study".
  • Prix ​​Joseph Dutens, 1959, the Académie des sciences morales et politiques for his work " La Gestion et la théorie des Houillères nationalisées économique " (1953)
  • Grand Prize of the Atlantic Community (1960), the Association Française pour la Communauté Atlantique for his work " L'Europe unie, route de Prospérité " (1959)
  • Grand Prix André Arnoux the Association pour la liberté Economique et le Progres Social ( 1968) for his oeuvre.
  • Gold Medal (1970 ) of the Société d' Encouragement pour l'Industrie Nationale for his oeuvre
  • Gold Medal ( 1978) of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique for his oeuvre
  • Prix ​​Robert Blanché, 1983, the Académie des sciences morales et politiques for his work " Fréquence, Probabilité et Hasard " (1982)
  • Zerilli Marimo Prix of the Académie des sciences morales et politiques (1984 ) for his overall
  • Prix ​​Spécial Jury Dupuit de Lesseps (1987 ) for his overall
  • Nobel Prize for Economics (1988 )

Physics

Also for his research in the natural sciences Maurice Allais was awarded several times. So he was or he was:

  • The Prix Galabert the Société Française d' astro nautique (1959 ) for his research on the gravity and the motion of the Foucault pendulum.
  • Winners of the Gravity Research Foundation ( USA, 1959) for his memoir " New Theoretical and Experimental Research Work on gravitation ( 1959)

Works (selection)

  • Économie et Intérêt 1947
  • Albert Einstein: un extraordinaire paradoxical, Juglar -Verlag, 2005 ISBN 2-908735-20-2 Paris
  • InnoVatio fundus (Vol. 15), 1999 ISBN 3-906501-15-9 Bonn
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