MODEL RELEASED. Jean Tirole (born 1953), French economist. Jean Marcel Tirole is director of the Fondation Jean-Jacques Laffont at the Toulouse School of Economics, and scientific director of the Industrial Economics Institute (IDEI) in Toulouse, France. He is a professor of economics, working mainly on industrial organisation, game theory, banking and finance, and economics and psychology. Tirole was also president of the Econometric Society in 1998 and of the European Economic Association in 2001.