Andreu Mas-Colell (; born 29 June 1944) is an

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...

, an expert in

microeconomics Microeconomics is a branch of economics that studies the behavior of individuals and Theory of the firm, firms in making decisions regarding the allocation of scarcity, scarce resources and the interactions among these individuals and firms. M ...

and a prominent mathematical economist. He is the founder of the Barcelona School of Economics and a professor in the department of economics at Pompeu Fabra University in

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. He has also served several times in the cabinet of the Catalan government.Curriculum vitae
from Mas-Colell's web site at Pompeu Fabra, retrieved 2025-05-30.Faculty profile
Barcelona School of Economics, retrieved 2025-05-30..Academic Acknowledgement to Prof. Mas-Colell Prior to Commencing New Role at ERC
Barcelona School of Economics, retrieved 2025-05-30. Summarizing his and others' research in

general equilibrium theory In economics, general equilibrium theory attempts to explain the behavior of supply, demand, and prices in a whole economy with several or many interacting markets, by seeking to prove that the interaction of demand and supply will result in an ov ...

, his monograph gave a thorough exposition of research using

differential topology In mathematics, differential topology is the field dealing with the topological properties and smooth properties of smooth manifolds. In this sense differential topology is distinct from the closely related field of differential geometry, which ...

.Page vii: Yves Balasko. ''Foundations of the Theory of General Equilibrium'', 1988, . His textbook ''

Microeconomic Theory Microeconomics is a branch of economics that studies the behavior of individuals and Theory of the firm, firms in making decisions regarding the allocation of scarcity, scarce resources and the interactions among these individuals and firms. M ...

'', co-authored with Michael Whinston and Jerry Green, is the most used graduate microeconomics textbook in the world.. The same result was also obtained in a survey of economics instructors by . In June 2021, Spain’s Court of Auditors found that he was among those responsible for government expenditure on the unconstitutional

2017 Catalan independence referendum An independence referendum was held on 1 October 2017 in the Spanish autonomous community of Catalonia, passed by the Parliament of Catalonia as the Law on the Referendum on Self-determination of Catalonia and called by the Generalitat de Catalun ...

, and announced its intention to fine him millions of euros; one member of the court dissented, and an outcry from economists followed.

Biography

A native of Barcelona,Page 559: Mas-Colell completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Barcelona, earning a degree in economics in 1966. He moved to the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

for his graduate studies, and completed his Ph.D. in 1972 under the supervision of Marcel Richter. He took a faculty position in mathematics and economics at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

, becoming a full professor in 1979. In 1981, he moved to

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, and in 1988 he became the Louis Berkman Professor of Economics at Harvard. In 1995 he moved to Pompeu Fabra to lead the Department of Economics and Business. He was editor-in-chief of the '' Journal of Mathematical Economics'' from 1985 to 1989, and of ''

Econometrica ''Econometrica'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal of economics, publishing articles in many areas of economics, especially econometrics. It is published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the Econometric Society. The current editor-in-chief is ...

'' from 1988 to 1998. He was president of the

Econometric Society The Econometric Society is an international society of academic economists interested in applying statistical tools in the practice of econometrics. It is an independent organization with no connections to societies of professional mathematicians o ...

in 1993 and of the

European Economic Association The European Economic Association (EEA) is a learned society, professional academic body which links European economists. It was founded in the mid-1980s. Its first annual congress was in 1986 in Vienna and its first president was Jacques Drèze. ...

in 2006. In public service, Mas-Colell was the Commissioner for Universities and Research of the

Generalitat of Catalonia The Generalitat de Catalunya (; ; ), or the Government of Catalonia, is the institutional system by which Catalonia is Self-governance, self-governed as an autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain. It is made up of the Parli ...

in 1999–2000. While Minister of Universities, Research and the Information Society for the Generalitat from 2000 to 2003, Mas-Colell implemented a research institution called Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA)Page 1431: to attract top-notch scientists in all fields of knowledge, from philosophers to astrophysicists, to perform their research in 50 different host institutions in Catalonia. Mas-Colell served the Secretary General of the

European Research Council The European Research Council (ERC) is a public body for funding of scientific and technological research conducted within the European Union (EU). Established by the European Commission in 2007, the ERC is composed of an independent Scientific ...

from 2009 to 2010. In the Catalonia Government from 2010-2016, presided by

Artur Mas Artur Mas i Gavarró (; born 31 January 1956) is a Catalan politician from Spain. He was president of the Government of Catalonia from 2010 to 2015 and acting president from September 2015 to 12 January 2016. Mas is a long time member of De ...

, he was appointed as the Councillor for Economy and Knowledge, being responsible for the government's budget, economic policy, and research policy. Spain’s Court of Auditors in June 2021 held Mas-Colell and several former colleagues in the Catalan government responsible for the mismanagement of €4.8m in support of Catalan independence.

Paul Romer Paul Michael Romer (born November 6, 1955) is an American economist and policy entrepreneur who is a Seidner University Professor in Finance at Boston College. Romer is best known as the former Chief Economist of the World Bank and for co- ...

, a Nobel prizewinner in economics, said that the procedure appeared to be ‘not justice but politics by other means.’ One member of the tribunal voted against the decision.

Research

Mas-Colell's research has ranged broadly over mathematical economics. In particular, he has been associated with a revival of the use of

differential calculus In mathematics, differential calculus is a subfield of calculus that studies the rates at which quantities change. It is one of the two traditional divisions of calculus, the other being integral calculus—the study of the area beneath a curve. ...

(in the form of " global analysis") at the highest levels of mathematical economics. Following

John von Neumann John von Neumann ( ; ; December 28, 1903 – February 8, 1957) was a Hungarian and American mathematician, physicist, computer scientist and engineer. Von Neumann had perhaps the widest coverage of any mathematician of his time, in ...

's break-throughs in economics, and particularly after his introduction of

functional analysis Functional analysis is a branch of mathematical analysis, the core of which is formed by the study of vector spaces endowed with some kind of limit-related structure (for example, Inner product space#Definition, inner product, Norm (mathematics ...

and

topology Topology (from the Greek language, Greek words , and ) is the branch of mathematics concerned with the properties of a Mathematical object, geometric object that are preserved under Continuous function, continuous Deformation theory, deformat ...

into economic theory, advanced mathematical economics reduced its emphasis on differential calculus. In general equilibrium theory, mathematical economists used

general topology In mathematics, general topology (or point set topology) is the branch of topology that deals with the basic set-theoretic definitions and constructions used in topology. It is the foundation of most other branches of topology, including differ ...

, convex geometry, and

optimization theory Mathematical optimization (alternatively spelled ''optimisation'') or mathematical programming is the selection of a best element, with regard to some criteria, from some set of available alternatives. It is generally divided into two subfiel ...

more than differential calculus. In the 1960s and 1970s, however,

Gérard Debreu Gérard Debreu (; 4 July 1921 – 31 December 2004) was a French-born economist and mathematician. Best known as a professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley, where he began work in 1962, he won the 1983 Nobel Memorial Prize ...

and Stephen Smale led a revival of the use of differential calculus in mathematical economics. In particular, they were able to prove the existence of a general equilibrium, where earlier writers had failed, through the use of their novel mathematics: Baire category from general topology and Sard's lemma from

and

differential geometry Differential geometry is a Mathematics, mathematical discipline that studies the geometry of smooth shapes and smooth spaces, otherwise known as smooth manifolds. It uses the techniques of Calculus, single variable calculus, vector calculus, lin ...

. Their publications initiated a period of research "characterized by the use of elementary differential topology": "almost every area in economic theory where the differential approach has been pursued, including general equilibrium" was covered by Mas-Colell's monograph on differentiable analysis and economics. Mas-Colell's book "offers a synthetic and thorough account of a major recent development in general equilibrium analysis, namely, the largely successful reconstruction of the theory using modern ideas of differential topology", according to its back cover. Mas-Colell has also contributed to the theory of general equilibrium in

topological Topology (from the Greek words , and ) is the branch of mathematics concerned with the properties of a geometric object that are preserved under continuous deformations, such as stretching, twisting, crumpling, and bending; that is, wit ...

vector lattices. The sets of prices and quantities can be described as partially ordered vector spaces, often as vector lattices. Economies with uncertain or dynamic decisions typically require that the vector spaces be infinite-dimensional, in which case the order properties of vector lattices allow stronger conclusions to be made. Recently researchers have studied nonlinear pricing: A "main motivation came from the fact that Mas-Colell's fundamental theory of welfare economics with no interiority assumptions crucially requires lattice properties of commodity spaces, ''even'' in finite-dimensional settings."Page 503 (Chapter 8 "Applications to economics", especially Section 8.5. "Pareto optimality in ordered commodity spaces", and the remainder of the chapter, particularly Section 8.5.11 "Nonlinear pricing")

Books

Mas-Colell is the author or co-author of: *''The Theory of General Economic Equilibrium: a Differentiable Approach'' (Econometric Society Monographs in Pure Theory 9, Cambridge University Press, 1990, ). This book was evaluated for ''

Mathematical Reviews ''Mathematical Reviews'' is a journal published by the American Mathematical Society (AMS) that contains brief synopses, and in some cases evaluations, of many articles in mathematics, statistics, and theoretical computer science. The AMS also pu ...

'' by Dave Furth, who wrote that ::Mas-Colell's book is one of the first and still one of the most complete and most rigorous of the few textbooks on the applications of differential topology and global analysis to the theory of general economic equilibrium. .... People working in the field ought to own and to have used it already for some time. So those still wanting to consult for the first time and perhaps wanting to buy the book must be mathematicians interested in economic applications of the above-mentioned mathematical subjects. They will not regret consulting and/or buying it; the book is excellent. *''Microeconomic Theory'' (with Michael Dennis Whinston, Jerry R. Green, Oxford University Press, 1995, ). writes that this was "the most commonly used textbook in microeconomics", Jönköping excepted (the investigation covers all economics Ph.D. programs in Sweden for the academic year 2003-04). *

Awards and honors

Mas-Colell is a foreign associate of the

United States National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

, a foreign honorary member of the

American Economic Association The American Economic Association (AEA) is a learned society in the field of economics, with approximately 23,000 members. It publishes several peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Review, an ...

, a fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

, a member of the

Academia Europaea The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of humanities, letters, law, and sciences. The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europe ...

, a member of the Institute of Catalan Studies, a fellow of the Real Academia de Ciencias Morales y Políticas, and a fellow of the

. He has received honorary doctorates from the University of Alicante in Spain, the

University of Toulouse The University of Toulouse (, ) is a community of universities and establishments ( ComUE) based in Toulouse, France. Originally it was established in 1229, making it one of the earliest universities to emerge in Europe. Suppressed during the ...

and

HEC Paris HEC Paris () is a business school and ''grande école'' located in Jouy-en-Josas, a southwestern outer suburb of Paris, France. It offers Bachelor, MiM, MSc in International Finance, MBA, EMBA, executive education, professional developm ...

in France, the National University of the South in Argentina, and the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

in the United States. He is a recipient of the Creu de Sant Jordi, the highest civil honor of Catalonia, and of the King Juan Carlos Prize in Economics. Also he has received the 2009 BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Economy, Finance and Management (co-winner with Hugo F. Sonnenschein). In honor of his 65th birthday and his service on the European Research Council, two conferences were held in his honor at Pompeu Fabra in 2009, the ''Journal of Mathematical Economics'' published a special issue in his honor, and he was awarded the Medal of Honor of the university. In 2024, the University of Minnesota conferred its Outstanding Achievement Award on Mas-Colell at a ceremony in Barcelona. The award cites him as "a pioneering researcher in economic theory, a builder of academic institutions, and a leader in graduate education in economics." In 2025, Mas-Colell received the Alexandre Pedrós Award from the Societat Econòmica Barcelonesa d'Amics del País.

References

External links