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Professor Mirrlees (right), Distinguished Professor of Economics of UM is awarded Royal Medal 2009

Upon approval by Queen Elizabeth II of the UK, Professor Sir James Mirrlees, Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences and Distinguished Professor of the University of Macau (UM), was recently awarded a Royal Medal 2009 by The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the economic theory which has had a global impact on economic development.

Professor Mirrlees, who is considered the most outstanding economic theorist that Scotland has ever produced in the last 150 years, received the award from The Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip of the UK, in August. He was Edgeworth Professor of Economics at the University of Oxford and Emeritus Professor of Political Economy at the University of Cambridge. He has also held visiting professorships at MIT, UC Berkeley, Yale and Melbourne. In 2004, he received Honorary Degree from UM in recognition of his significant contributions to economic theory. In 2005, he accepted the appointment as Distinguished Professor of Economics at the University of Macau. .
 
Professor Mirrlees whose groundbreaking work on optimal income taxation was so powerful that it has provided the basis, not only for the establishment of taxation systems around the world today, but also for our understanding of a whole range of other markets and systems, including insurance, auctions, wages, and stock markets. In addition to the issue of moral hazard, the “fundamental contributions to the economic theory of incentives under asymmetric information” made by Professor Mirrlees was of such primary importance to our understanding of these markets and systems that in 1996 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics. In 1997 he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.
 
Founded in 1783, The Royal Society of Edinburgh is the Scottish equivalent of the British Royal Society. It has a peer-elected, multidisciplinary Fellowship of 1,500 men and women who are experts in their respective fields. Since 2000, RSE has presented annual Royal Medals to individuals whose achievements have brought about benefits on an international scale. The Medallists are recommended by the RSE’s Council and approved by its Patron, Queen Elizabeth II of the UK.