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 The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, officially the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel ( sv, Sveriges riksbanks pris i ekonomisk vetenskap till Alfred Nobels minne), is an economics award administered ...

. He was

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the G ...

in the 1997 Birthday Honours.

Early life and education

Born in Minnigaff,

Kirkcudbrightshire Kirkcudbrightshire ( ), or the County of Kirkcudbright or the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright is one of the historic counties of Scotland, covering an area in the south-west of the country. Until 1975, Kirkcudbrightshire was an administrative count ...

, Mirrlees was educated at

Douglas Ewart High School Douglas Ewart High School was opened in 1922 in Newton Stewart, Scotland. It was formed by the amalgamation of the Douglas Free School opened in 1834 and the High School of the Ewart Institute opened in 1864. The headteacher has been George Web ...

, then at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 1 ...

( MA in Mathematics and Natural Philosophy in 1957) and

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...

(

Mathematical Tripos The Mathematical Tripos is the mathematics course that is taught in the Faculty of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge. It is the oldest Tripos examined at the University. Origin In its classical nineteenth-century form, the tripos was ...

and PhD in 1963 with thesis title ''Optimum Planning for a Dynamic Economy'', supervised by

Richard Stone Sir John Richard Nicholas Stone (30 August 1913 – 6 December 1991) was an eminent British economist, educated at Westminster School and Gonville and Caius College and King's College at the University of Cambridge. In 1984, he was awarded ...

). He was a very active student debater. A contemporary,

Quentin Skinner Quentin Robert Duthie Skinner (born 26 November 1940) is a British intellectual historian. He is regarded as one of the founders of the Cambridge School of the history of political thought. He has won numerous prizes for his work, including t ...

, has suggested that Mirrlees was a member of the

Cambridge Apostles The Cambridge Apostles (also known as '' Conversazione Society'') is an intellectual society at the University of Cambridge founded in 1820 by George Tomlinson, a Cambridge student who became the first Bishop of Gibraltar.W. C. Lubenow, ''The ...

along with fellow Nobel Laureate

Amartya Sen Amartya Kumar Sen (; born 3 November 1933) is an Indian economist and philosopher, who since 1972 has taught and worked in the United Kingdom and the United States. Sen has made contributions to welfare economics, social choice theory, economi ...

during the period.

Economics

Between 1968 and 1976, Mirrlees was a visiting professor at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of th ...

three times. He was also a visiting professor at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant un ...

(1986) and

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the w ...

(1989). He taught at both

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

(as Edgeworth Professor of Economics 1968–1995) and

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

(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 In contract theory and economics, information asymmetry deals with the study of decisions in transactions where one party has more or better information than the other. Information asymmetry creates an imbalance of power in transactions, which can ...

, 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 In economics, a moral hazard is a situation where an economic actor has an incentive to increase its exposure to risk because it does not bear the full costs of that risk. For example, when a corporation is insured, it may take on higher risk ...

" and " optimal income taxation" discussed in the books of

William Vickrey William Spencer Vickrey (21 June 1914 – 11 October 1996) was a Canadian-American professor of economics and Nobel Laureate. Vickrey was awarded the 1996 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with James Mirrlees for their research into the e ...

. The methodology has since become the standard in the field. Mirrlees and Vickrey shared the 1996

"for their fundamental contributions to the economic theory of incentives under asymmetric information". Mirrlees was also co-creator, with MIT Professor

Peter A. Diamond Peter Arthur Diamond (born , 1940) is an American economist known for his analysis of U.S. Social Security policy and his work as an advisor to the Advisory Council on Social Security in the late 1980s and 1990s. He was awarded the Nobel Memoria ...

, of the Diamond–Mirrlees efficiency theorem, which was developed in 1971. Mirrlees was emeritus Professor of Political Economy at the

and a Fellow of

. He spent several months a year at the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

. He was the Distinguished Professor-at-Large of the

Chinese University of Hong Kong The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) is a public research university in Ma Liu Shui, Hong Kong, formally established in 1963 by a charter granted by the Legislative Council of Hong Kong. It is the territory's second-oldest university and ...

as well as University of Macau. In 2009, he was appointed Founding Master of the Morningside College of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Mirrlees was a member of

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

Council of Economic Advisers The Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) is a United States agency within the Executive Office of the President established in 1946, which advises the President of the United States on economic policy. The CEA provides much of the empirical rese ...

. He also led the Mirrlees Review, a review of the UK tax system by the Institute for Fiscal Studies. His Ph.D. students included eminent academics and policy makers like professor Franklin Allen, Sir Partha Dasgupta, professor Huw Dixon, professor Hyun-Song Shin, Lord Nicholas Stern, professor Anthony Venables,

Sir John Vickers Sir John Vickers (born 7 July 1958) is a British economist and the Warden of All Souls College, Oxford. Education Vickers studied at Eastbourne Grammar School and Oriel College, Oxford. He graduated with a DPhil from the University of Oxford. ...

, and professor

Zhang Weiying Zhang Weiying (; born October 1, 1959) is a Chinese economist and was head of the Guanghua School of Management, Peking University. He is known for his advocacy of free markets and his ideas have been influenced by the Austrian School. Biograph ...

. He died in Cambridge, England, on 29 August 2018.

Personal life

Mirrlees was an atheist.

Publications

* "A New Model of Economic Growth"(with N. Kaldor), ''RES'', 1962 * "Optimum Growth When Technology is Changing", ''RES'', 1967 * "The Dynamic Nonsubstitution Theorem", ''RES'', 1969 * "The Evaluation of National Income in an Imperfect Economy", ''Pakistan Development Review'', 1969 * ''Manual of Industrial Project Analysis in Developing Countries, Vol II: Social Cost Benefit Analysis'' (with I.M.D. Little), 1969 * "An Exploration in the Theory of Optimum Income Taxation", ''RES'', 197

* "Optimal Taxation and Public Production I: Production Efficiency" (with P.A. Diamond), ''AER'', 1971 * "Optimal Taxation and Public Production II: Tax Rules"(with P.A. Diamond),''AER'', 1971 * "The Terms of Trade: Pearson on Trade, Debt, and Liquidity", in ''The Widening Gap'' (ed. Barbara Ward), 1971) * "On Producer Taxation", ''RES'', 1972 * "Further Reflections on Project Analysis" (with I.M.D. Little), ''Development and Planning. Essays for Paul Rosenstein-Rodan'' (eds. Bhagwati and Eckaus, 1972 * "Fairly Good Plans" (with N.H. Stern), ''Journal of Economic Theory'', 1972 * "Aggregate Production with Consumption Externalities" (with P.A. Diamond), ''QJE'', 1973 * "The Optimum Town", ''Swedish Journal of Economics'', 1972 * "Population Policy and the Taxation of Family Size", ''Journal of Public Economics'', 1972 *"Agreeable Plans" (with P.J. Hammond) and "Models of Economic Growth" (introduction), in ''Models of Economic Growth'' (ed. Mirrlees and Stern), 1973 * ''Project Appraisal and Planning for Developing Countries'' (with I.M.D. Little), 1974 * "Optimal Accumulation under Uncertainty: the Case of Stationary Returns to Investment", in ''Allocation under Uncertainty'' (ed. J. Dreze), 1974 * "Notes on Welfare Economics, Information and Uncertainty", in ''Essays in Equilibrium Behavior under Uncertainty'' (eds. M. Balch, D. McFadden, and S. Wu), 1974 * "Optimal Taxation in a Two-Class Economy", ''Journal of Public Economics'', 1975 * "Optimum Saving with Economies of Scale" (with A.K. Dixit and N.H. Stern), ''RES'', 1975 * "A Pure Theory of Underdeveloped Economies, using a Relationship between Consumption and Productivity", in ''Agriculture in Development Theory'' (ed. L. Reynolds), 1975 * "The Desirability of Natural Resource Depletion" (with J.A. Kay), in ''The Economics of Natural Resource Depletion'' (ed. D.W. Pearce), 1975 * "The Optimal Structure of Incentives and Authority within an Organization", ''Bell Journal of Economics and Management Science'', 1976 * "On the Assignment of Liability: the Uniform Case" (with P.A. Diamond), ''Bell Journal of Economics'', 1975 * "Private Constant Returns and Public Shadow Prices"(with P.A. Diamond), ''RES'', 1976 * "Optimal Tax Theory: A Synthesis", ''Journal of Public Economics'', December 1976 * "Implications for Tax Rates", in ''Taxation and Incentives'', 1976 * "Arguments for Public Expenditure" in ''Contemporary Economic Analysis'' (eds. Artis and Nobay), 1979 * "Social Benefit-Cost Analysis and the Distribution of Income", ''World Development'', 1978 * "A Model of Optimal Social Insurance with Variable Retirement" (with P.A. Diamond), ''Journal of Public Economics'', 1978 * "Optimal Taxation in a Stochastic Economy: A Cobb-Douglas Example" (with P.A. Diamond and J. Helms), ''Journal of Public Economics'', 1980 * "Optimal Foreign-income taxation", ''Journal of Public Economics'', 1982 * "The economic uses of utilitarianism", in * "The Theory of Optimum Taxation", ''Handbook of Mathematical Economics'' (eds. Arrow and Intriligator), Vol.III, 1985 * "Insurance Aspects of Pensions" (with P.A. Diamond), in ''Pensions, Labor and Individual Choice'' (ed. David A. Wise), 1985 * "Payroll-tax financed social insurance with variable retirement" (with P. A. Diamond), ''Scandinavian Journal of Economics'', 1986 * "Taxing Uncertain Incomes", ''Oxford Economic Papers'', 1990 * "Project Appraisal and Planning Twenty Years On" (with I.M.D. Little), in ''Proceedings of the World Bank Annual Conference on Development Economics 1990'' (eds. Stanley Fischer, Dennis de Tray and Shekhar Shah), 1991 * "Optimal Taxation of Identical Consumers when markets are incomplete" (with P.A. Diamond), in ''Economic Analysis of Markets and Games'' (ed. Dasgupta, Gale, Hart and Maskin), 1992 * "Optimal Taxation and Government Finance" in ''Modern Public Finance'' (eds. Quigley and Smolensky), 1994 * "Welfare Economics and Economies of Scale", ''Japanese Economic Review'', 1995 * "Private Risk and Public Action: The Economies of the Welfare State", ''European Economic Review'', 1995
"Tax by Design: the Mirrlees Review"
J. Mirrlees, S. Adam, T. Besley, R. Blundell, S. Bond, R. Chote, M. Gammie, P. Johnson, G. Myles and J. Poterba, , Oxford University Press: September 2011.

References

External links

*
James Mirrlees website
Pete Tregear and Dan Atherton.

from The Chinese University of Hong Kong
James Mirrlees interviewed by Alan Macfarlane 21 July 2009 (video)
* * * including the Prize Lecture 9 December 1996 ''Information and Incentives: The Economics of Carrots and Sticks'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Mirrlees, James 1936 births 2018 deaths Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Chinese University of Hong Kong Edgeworth Professors of Economics Fellows of Nuffield College, Oxford Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge Fellows of the British Academy Fellows of the Econometric Society Presidents of the Econometric Society Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences Information economists Knights Bachelor Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty Nobel laureates in Economics Public economists People educated at Douglas Ewart High School People from Dumfries and Galloway Scottish atheists Scottish economists Scottish Nobel laureates 20th-century British economists 20th-century Scottish writers 21st-century British economists 21st-century Scottish writers Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Institute for New Economic Thinking Professors of Political Economy (Cambridge, 1863)