In 1979 Jean-Jacques Laffont, world-class economist, returned to his hometown Toulouse from the USA. Visionary and entrepreneurial as he was, his dream was to combine the best of his different worlds to create a new model in France: an internationally renowned school of economics within a public university.
As Jean-Jacques used to say, “Toulouse, c’est mon Amérique à moi”. And so he gathered around him a strong group of like-minded colleagues committed to academic excellence, all determined for economics to have a real impact on society and everyday lives.
These so-called “économistes de Toulouse” steadily laid the foundations for what, 30 years later, has become Toulouse School of Economics, a thriving world-renowned center for research in economics chaired by Nobel laureate Jean Tirole.
TSE strives to:
- provide solutions to today’s key economic and social issues
- promote excellence in research & higher education
- encourage pioneering interdisciplinary research
- connect research to policy, in France, Europe and worldwide
- implement highest international standards in its own governance