Nobel Laureate: The Many Other Allais Paradoxes

Maurice Allais is know for the 1952 “Allais paradox,” but other very important parts of his work remain virtually unknown to most economists. As Paul Samuelson (1983) wrote, “Had Allais' earliest writings been in English, a whole generation of economic theory would have taken a different course.” Perhaps the Nobel award will encourage economists to examine his work more closely. Let me first give a quick portrait of Maurice Allais, and then list some of his major contributions to the theory of markets, to the theory of capital, to decision making under risk and to monetary dynamics.