Myerson accepts Jean-Jacques Laffont prize in Toulouse, France, presents talk on building democracies

Roger Myerson, the Glen A. Lloyd Distinguished Service Professor in Economics and winner of the 2007 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, received the Jean-Jacques Laffont prize from the city of Toulouse, France, and the Institute of Industrial Economy.

Jean-Jacques Laffont founded the Institute of Industrial Economy inToulouse. Since 2005, the Jean-Jacques Laffont prize has been awarded each year to a leading economist, who is invited to Toulouse to present work on economic analysis with significant policy applications.

Myerson received the award Wednesday, Dec. 9, in the Toulouse City Hall, where he presented “State-Building, Leadership and Local Democracy.” His talk explored the importance of involving citizens at the local level in building democracies, and he pointed out ways in which leaders in Pakistan and Afghanistan have failed to solidify their power by missing out on opportunities to expand their influence broadly.

Myerson is the author of Game Theory: Analysis of Conflict (1991) and Probability Models for Economic Decisions (2005) and many professional articles in economic theory. Myerson taught for 25 years in the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University before joining the Chicago faculty in 2001. He is a member of the Econometric Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Sciences. He was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to mechanism design theory.