James Mirrlees Explained

Sir James Mirrlees
Birth Date:5 July 1936
Birth Place:Minnigaff, Scotland
Death Place:Cambridge, England
Nationality:British
Institution:Chinese University of Hong Kong
Oxford University
University of Cambridge
Field:Political economics
Contributions:Asymmetric information
Moral Hazard
Optimal income taxation
Zero population growth
Spence–Mirrlees condition
Doctoral Advisor:Richard Stone
Doctoral Students:Partha Dasgupta
Nicholas Stern
Peter J. Hammond[1]
Franklin Allen
Barry Nalebuff
Geoffrey M. Heal
Huw Dixon
Anthony Venables
John Vickers
Alan Manning
Gareth Myles
Paul Seabright
Hyun-Song Shin
Zhang Weiying
Awards:Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (1996)
Repec Prefix:e
Repec Id:pmi20
Education:University of Edinburgh (MA)
Trinity College, Cambridge (PhD)

Sir James Alexander Mirrlees (5 July 1936 – 29 August 2018) was a British economist and winner of the 1996 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. He was knighted in the 1997 Birthday Honours.

Early life and education

Born in Minnigaff, Kirkcudbrightshire, Mirrlees was educated at Douglas Ewart High School, then at the University of Edinburgh (MA in Mathematics and Natural Philosophy in 1957) and Trinity College, Cambridge (Mathematical Tripos and PhD in 1963 with thesis title Optimum Planning for a Dynamic Economy, supervised by Richard Stone). He was a very active student debater. A contemporary, Quentin Skinner, has suggested that Mirrlees was a member of the Cambridge Apostles along with fellow Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen during the period.

Economics

Between 1968 and 1976, Mirrlees was a visiting professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology three times. He was also a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley (1986) and Yale University (1989).[2] He taught at both Oxford University (as Edgeworth Professor of Economics 1968–1995) and University of Cambridge (1963–1968 and 1995–2018).

During his time at Oxford, he published papers on economic models for which he would eventually be awarded his Nobel Prize. The papers centred on asymmetric information, which determines the extent to which they should affect the optimal rate of saving in an economy. Among other results, he demonstrated the principles of "moral hazard" and "optimal income taxation" discussed in the books of William Vickrey. The methodology has since become the standard in the field.

Mirrlees and Vickrey shared the 1996 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences "for their fundamental contributions to the economic theory of incentives under asymmetric information".

Mirrlees was also co-creator, with MIT Professor Peter A. Diamond, of the Diamond–Mirrlees efficiency theorem, which was developed in 1971.[3]

Mirrlees was emeritus Professor of Political Economy at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. He spent several months a year at the University of Melbourne, Australia. He was the Distinguished Professor-at-Large of the Chinese University of Hong Kong as well as University of Macau.[4]

In 2009, he was appointed Founding Master of the Morningside College of the Chinese University of Hong Kong.[5]

Mirrlees was a member of Scotland's Council of Economic Advisers. He also led the Mirrlees Review, a review of the UK tax system by the Institute for Fiscal Studies.[6]

His PhD students included eminent academics and policy makers like professor Franklin Allen, Sir Partha Dasgupta,[7] professor Huw Dixon,[8] professor Hyun-Song Shin, Lord Nicholas Stern, professor Anthony Venables, Sir John Vickers, and professor Zhang Weiying.[9] He died in Cambridge, England, on 29 August 2018.[10] [11] [12]

Personal life

Mirrlees was an atheist.[13]

Publications

Further reading

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Curriculum Vitae . Hammond . Peter J. . Peter J. Hammond's Personal Home Page . 28 January 2017 .
  2. Web site: James A. Mirrlees – Curriculum Vitae . Nobelprize.org . 29 October 2013.
  3. Peter A. Diamond and James A. Mirrlees (1971). "Optimal Taxation and Public Production I: Production Efficiency," American Economic Review, 61(1), pp. 8–27 (press +).
       _____ (1971). "Optimal Taxation and Public Production II: Tax Rules," American Economic Review, 61(3), Part 1, pp. 261–278 (press +).
  4. http://www.umac.mo/economics/staff/index.html UMAC Department of Economics: Staff
  5. Web site: Professor Sir James Mirrlees (5 July 1936 – 29 August 2018) – News – News & Events – Morningside College . 2023-06-04 . morningside.cuhk.edu.hk.
  6. Johnson . Paul . Myles . Gareth . 2011 . The Mirrlees Review . Fiscal Studies. 32 . 3 . 319–329 . 10.1111/j.1475-5890.2011.00139.x . 0143-5671.
  7. Web site: James A. Mirrlees – Biographical. nobelprize.org. 2016-08-06.
  8. Web site: Professor Huw Dixon. 2016-08-06.
  9. Book: Leonard, Mark. What Does China Think?. 2008-01-01. PublicAffairs. 978-0786732036. 141.
  10. Web site: Nobel Prize-Winning Economist James Mirrlees Dies at 82. .
  11. Web site: Chinese University Nobel laureate James Mirrlees dies aged 82. 31 August 2018.
  12. Web site: Goyal . Sanjeev . Professor Sir James Mirrlees 1936-2018 . University of Cambridge . 30 August 2018. 30 August 2018 .
  13. Klein . Daniel B. . Daza . Ryan . Mead . Hannah . James A. Mirrlees [Ideological Profiles of the Economics Laureates] ]. Econ Journal Watch . September 2013 . 10 . 3 . 466–472 . 30 August 2018 . At 35 no longer Christian, atheist rather..

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