Jacques Drèze died aged 93

IEA President 1996-1999

It is with the greatest sadness that we learned that Jacques Drèze, President of the IEA from 1996 to 1999, passed away on September 25 evening at age 93. He was one of Europe’s most acclaimed  economists, distinguishing himself not only by his enormous scientific contributions but also by his continuing selfless support to both the development of research and the economic policy debate in Europe.

His contribution to economics has been exceptional, opening up new paths of research in such varied areas as general equilibrium theory, decision theory, theory of contracts, economics of uncertainty, game theory, econometrics, operational research, public economics, macroeconomics and economic policy. His numerous publications attest the quality of his work. The profession also acknowledged his merits in many ways: Professor Drèze was President of the Econometrics Society, as well as associate editor and co-editor of Econometrica; a founder member and the first President of the European Economic Association; honorary member of the American Economic Association and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; and honorary doctor of 12 universities, including the University of Chicago.

Jacques Drèze was a committed European always guided by a deep desire to understand the society he lived in and help solving the many problems afflicting it. At the start of his career, he took the risk of moving back to Belgium, his native country, where he became professor at the Université Catholique de Louvain. He founded CORE, which rapidly became one of Europe’s most prestigious centres for research in economics. He participated actively in debates on the most pressing problems of the European economy at the time, among them unemployment, the reform of the pension system and the university reform.