James Mirrlees, Nobel laureate in economics who studied taxation, dies at 82

James Mirrlees, a British economist who won the Nobel Prize for his theories of economic incentives, which have been applied to taxation, insurance and the allocation of public services, died Aug. 29 at his home near Cambridge, England.

He was 82.

His death was announced by Nuffield College of the University of Oxford, where he was a longtime professor. The cause was a brain tumor, the London Times reported.

Dr. Mirrlees, who shared the 1996 Nobel Prize with William Vickrey of Columbia University, approached economics from a background in mathematics.

He was particularly fascinated by ideas first put forth by Vickrey and others concerning “information asymmetry,” in which one party in an economic transaction is privy to knowledge the other does not have.

“That just means not knowing as much as you would like,” Mirrlees explained.

He sought to explore the implications of information asymmetry and how it affected individual behavior and economic policy.

A simple example of the concept would be when someone offers a used car for sale. The seller has a greater understanding of the condition of the automobile than the buyer.

The idea has been used to understand costs and benefits in real estate, health insurance, investing, welfare and employee motivation.

“My subject has always been economics and human welfare,” Mirrlees said after winning the Nobel.