French economist Jean Tirole has won the 2014 Nobel Prize for economics for his work in " taming powerful firms."<br/> <br />In awarding the 8 million Swedish crown ($1.1 million) prize, Staffan Normark, Permanent Secretary of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said that Tirole has clarified policies about regulating industries with a few powerful firms, especially after a wave of privatizations had set governments a conundrum over how to encourage private investments in sectors like healthcare and railways while reining in profits.<br/> <br />"My one merit is to have been with the right people at the right time," the 61-year-old, who is unknown to most French, told Reuters in his office at the Toulouse School of Economics in southwest France, where he is a professor.<br/> <br />It was the second Nobel Prize for a French national this year after author Patrick Modiano won the literature award - a fact not lost on Prime Minister Manuel Valls, trying to deflect attacks from France's EU partners over
