"Dear members of the TSE community,
It is with great sadness that we inform you of the passing of Bernard Belloc, who died early this morning at the age of 76. Bernard was one of the founding fathers of TSE. Until the very end, he supported, encouraged, and advised us. He was a great source of inspiration, and his guidance was always deeply appreciated.
Bernard was a pioneer of our institution. He studied economics at our university in the late 1960s and completed a PhD supervised by Professor Jean Vincens in 1978. In 1982, he defended a third-cycle thesis, written under the supervision of Jean-Jacques Laffont, entitled "Theory of Incentive Contracts in Dominant Strategy with Asymmetric Information". He passed the national agrégation examination in 1984, which led to his first professorship at the University of Bordeaux. He then transferred to the University of Toulouse 1 (UT1) in 1987, marking the beginning of an impressive academic leadership career supporting Jean-Jacques Laffont’s project.
From 1989 to 1995, he served as Dean of the Faculty of Economics at UT1. During the 1990s, he was Vice President of UT1 and also held responsibilities at the Ministry of Higher Education in Paris.
In 1998, he was elected President of UT1 for a five-year term. To this day, he remains the only economist to have held this position. During his presidency, he also became the President of the Conference of University Presidents. He played an active political role, advocating for major reforms in French universities and in the status of academics. President Sarkozy appointed him as an advisor at the Élysée, during which time significant reforms were enacted: university autonomy, LABEX, IDEX, and more. These transformations, inspired by Bernard and the late Jean-Jacques who passed away in 2004, have had a lasting impact on French universities and made possible the changes currently underway at TSE and the University Toulouse Capitole.
Bernard Belloc was elected Chairman of the Board of the Jean-Jacques Laffont Foundation upon its creation in February 2007. He later became its first Honorary President. He also chaired the boards of the Industrial Economics Institute (IDEI-R) and later TSE-P.
Achieving our academic ambitions requires more than scientific and pedagogical excellence. It also requires colleagues willing to dedicate their time and energy to embody and advance our collective mission. Bernard Belloc, who fully embraced our values of scientific excellence, was undoubtedly one of them. Without such individuals, we would be nothing. They deserve our eternal gratitude.
Even from his hospital bed in recent weeks, Bernard continued to worry about us, like a father would for his children.
Our thoughts are with his family—his wife Martine, his children and grandchildren—as well as with all his friends, many of whom are part of our community."
Christian Gollier and Yassine Lefouili
