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Gerard Debreu (born Gérard Debreu; July 4, 1921 Calais - December 31, 2004) was a French-born economist and mathematician. Events 836 - Pactum Sicardi, peace between the Principality of Benevento and the Duchy of Naples Year 1921 ( MCMXXI) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display full 1921 calendar of the Gregorian calendar Calais (kaˈlɛ in English often kæˈleɪ traditional English pronunciation /ˈkælɨs/ Kales is a town in northern France. Events 406 – Vandals, Alans and Suebians cross the Rhine, beginning an invasion of Gallia. "MMIV" redirects here For the Modest Mouse album see " Baron von Bullshit Rides Again " This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. In July 1975, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Year 1975 ( MCMLXXV) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Naturalization is the acquisition of Citizenship or Nationality by somebody who was not a citizen or national of that country when he or she was born The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Best known as a professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley, where he began work in 1962, he won the 1983 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics. The University of California Berkeley (also referred to as Cal, Berkeley and UC Berkeley) is a major research university located in Berkeley Year 1983 ( MCMLXXXIII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1983 Gregorian calendar) The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, officially named The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel (Sveriges riksbanks pris i ekonomisk

His father was the business partner of his maternal grandfather in lace manufacturing, a traditional industry in Calais.

Just prior to the start of World War II he received his baccalauréat, and went to Ambert to begin preparing for the exam for entering a grande école. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including The baccalauréat (bakaloʁeˈa often known in France colloquially as le bac or le bachôt, is an academic qualification which Ambert is a commune in the Puy-de-Dôme department in Auvergne in central France. The Grandes écoles ("Graduate schools" literally in French "Grand Schools" or "Elite Schools" of France are higher Later on he moved from Ambert to Grenoble to complete his preparation, both being in the so-called "Free Zone" during World War II. Ambert is a commune in the Puy-de-Dôme department in Auvergne in central France. Grenoble is a city and commune in south-east France situated at the foot of the Alps where the Drac joins the Isère River. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including

In 1941 he was admitted to the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, along with Marcel Boiteux. Year 1941 ( MCMXLI) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (the link will display 1941 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. École Normale de Musique de ParisThe École normale supérieure (also known as Normale Sup’, Normale, ENS, ENS-Paris, ENS-Ulm or Paris (ˈpærɨs in English; in French) is the Capital of France and the country's largest city He was influenced by Henri Cartan and the Bourbaki writers. Henri Paul Cartan ( July 8, 1904 &ndash August 13, 2008) was a son of Élie Cartan, and was as his father was a distinguished Nicolas Bourbaki is the collective Pseudonym under which a group of (mainly French) 20th-century Mathematicians wrote a series of books presenting an exposition When he was about to take the final examinations in 1944, D-Day arrived and he instead enlisted in the French army. Year 1944 ( MCMXLIV) was a Leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. D-Day may also refer to Decimal Day in the United Kingdom. D-Day is a term often used in Military parlance to denote He was transferred for training to Algeria and then served in French occupational forces in Germany until July 1945. Algeria ( ar [[Arabic]] الجزائر, Al Jaza'ir ælʤæˈzæːʔir Amazigh: ⴷⵥⴰⵢⴻⵔ Dzayer) officially the People's

Debreu passed the Agrégation de Mathématiques exams at the end of 1945 and the beginning of 1946. By this time he had become interested in economics, particularly the general equilibrium theory of Leon Walras. Marie-Esprit-Léon Walras ( December 16, 1834 in Évreux, France - January 5, 1910 in Clarens near Montreux From 1946 to 1948, he was an assistant in the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. During these two and a half years he made the transition from mathematics to economics.

In 1948, Debreu came to the USA on a Rockefeller Fellowship which allowed him to visit several American universities, as well as those in Uppsala and Oslo in 1949-50. Uppsala University ( Swedish Uppsala universitet) is a world-class research University in Uppsala, Sweden. The University of Oslo (Universitetet i Oslo Universitas Osloensis is the oldest and largest University in Norway, situated in the Norwegian capital Debreu began working as a Research Association and joined the Cowles Commission at the University of Chicago in the summer of 1950. The Cowles Commission for Research in Economics is an Economic Research institute, founded in Colorado Springs in 1932 by Alfred Cowles, a businessman The University of Chicago is a Private university located principally in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago.

There he remained for five years, returning to Paris periodically. In 1954 he published a breakthrough paper titled Existence of an Equilibrium for a Competitive Economy (together with Kenneth Arrow), in which they provided a definitive mathematical proof of the existence of general equilibrium, using topological rather than calculus methods. Kenneth Joseph Arrow (born August 23, 1921) is an American Economist and joint winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics General equilibrium theory is a branch of theoretical Microeconomics. Topology ( Greek topos, "place" and logos, "study" is the branch of Mathematics that studies the properties of Calculus ( Latin, calculus, a small stone used for counting is a branch of Mathematics that includes the study of limits, Derivatives

In 1955 he moved to Yale University. In 1959 he published his classical monograph, Theory of Value: An Axiomatic Analysis of Economic Equilibrium, (Cowles Foundation Monographs Series), which is one of the most important works in mathematical economics. He also studied several problems in the theory of cardinal utility, the additive decomposition of a utility function defined on a Cartesian product of sets. In Economics, utility is a measure of the relative satisfaction from or desirability of Consumption of various Goods and services. Cartesian square redirects here For Cartesian squares in Category theory, see Cartesian square (category theory.

In this monograph, Debreu sets up an axiomatic foundation for competitive markets. He establishes the existence of equilibrium using a novel approach. The main idea is to show that there exists a price system for which the aggregate excess demand correspondence vanishes. He does so by proving a type of fixed point theorem based on the Kakutani fixed point theorem. In Mathematical analysis, the Kakutani fixed point theorem is a Fixed-point theorem for Set-valued functions It provides sufficient conditions for a set-valued In Chapter 7 of the book Debreu introduces uncertainty and shows how it can be incorporated into the deterministic model. Here he introduces the notion of a contingent commodity, which is a promise to deliver a good should a state of nature realize. This concept is very frequently used in financial economics as a so called Arrow Debreu security. Financial economics is the branch of Economics concerned with "the allocation and deployment of economic resources both spatially and across time in an uncertain environment" The Arrow-Debreu model, also referred to as the Arrow-Debreu-McKenzie model (ADM model is the central model in the General (Economic Equilibrium Theory and often

In 1960-61, he worked at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford and devoted mostly to the complex proof that appeared in 1962 of a general theorem on the existence of an economic equilibrium. Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly known as Stanford University or simply Stanford, is a private Research university located in

In January of 1962, he started worked at the University of California, Berkeley where he held the title University Professor and Class of 1958 Professor of Economics and Mathematics Emeritus. The University of California Berkeley (also referred to as Cal, Berkeley and UC Berkeley) is a major research university located in Berkeley During his leaves in late sixties and seventies he visited universities in Leiden, Cambridge, Bonn, and Paris. Leiden University (Universiteit Leiden located in the city of Leiden, is the oldest University in The Netherlands. The University of Cambridge (often Cambridge University) located in Cambridge, England, is the second-oldest university in the The University of Bonn ( German: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn) is a public research university located in Bonn, Germany The historic University of Paris (Université de Paris first appeared in the second half of the 13th century

His later studies centred mainly on the theory of differentiable economies where he showed that in general aggregate excess demand functions vanish at a finite number of points. Basically, showing that economies have a finite number of price equilibria.

In 1976 he received the French Legion of Honor. He was awarded the 1983 Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel for having incorporated new analytical methods into economic theory and for his rigorous reformulation of general equilibrium theory. He was member of the International Academy of Science. The International Academy of Science (IAS is an inter- and transnational academy of science

In 1990, he served as President of the American Economic Association. The American Economic Association, or AEA, is the oldest and most important professional organization in the field of Economics.

Debreu married Françoise Bled in 1946 and had two daughters, Chantal and Florence, born in 1946 and 1950 respectively.

Debreu died in Paris at age 83 of natural causes on New Year's Eve, 2004 and was interred in the Père Lachaise Cemetery. New Year's Eve is on December 31, the final day of the Gregorian year and the day before New Year's Day. Père Lachaise Cemetery (Cimetière du Père-Lachaise officially cimetière de l'Est, "East Cemetery" is the largest Cemetery in the city of Paris

Major publications

External links

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