Maurice Allais - Notable quotes

Economist and engineer, born in Paris, France. He was professor of economic analysis at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Mines (from 1944) and director of a research unit at the Centre de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) (from 1946). His primary contributions have been in the reformulation of the theories of general economic equilibrium and maximum efficiency, and in the development of new concepts relating to capital and consumer choice. In 1978 he became the first economist to be awarded the distinguished gold medal of the CNRS, and he received the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1988.

Maurice Allais (born May 31, 1911 in Paris, France) is a well-known economist, and was the 1988 winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics "for his pioneering contributions to the theory of markets and efficient utilization of resources".

As an economist he made contributions to decision theory, monetary policy and other areas, but his name is particularly associated with what is commonly known as the Allais paradox, a decision problem he first presented in 1953 which contradicts expected utility theory.

As a an attempt to contribute in physics, he made two controversial claims in relation to gravitational anomalies:

The Allais effect first reported in 1954 was the result of anomalous readings of a paraconical pendulum during two separate eclipse events.

Modern precision experiments have continually verified the results brought into question by Miller, discounting his repeated attempts and discounting Allais' analysis.

Notable quotes

"In essence, the present creation of money, out of nothing by the banking system, is similar - I do not hesitate to say it in order to make people clearly realize what is at stake here - to the creation of money by counterfeiters, so rightly condemned by law."