Allais, Maurice

Allais, Maurice (älĕ`), 1911–, French economist. After working in the French mine administration, he joined the École National Superieure des Mines in Paris (1944–) and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientific (1946–), where he developed his economic theories of how large, state-owned monopolies function. He was named an officer of the Legion of Honor in 1977, and in 1988 he received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his earlier work on resource allocation and pricing in monopolistic enterprises. He retired in 1980 but continued his affiliation with the École and the research center.