Tribute to Jean-Paul Fitoussi

Laurence Bertrand Dorleac, Chair of the National Foundation of Political Science (FNSP) and Mathias Vicherat, President of Sciences Po have the great sadness to inform that Jean-Paul Fitoussi, Professor Emeritus at Sciences Po, former President of the OFCE, former Chairman of our Academic Board and former member and Vice President of our Board of Directors, passed away last night in his 79th year.

Born in La Goulette, Tunisia, in 1942, Jean-Paul Fitoussi began his teaching career at the University of Strasbourg at the end of the 1960s, before joining the European University Institute in Florence in 1979; both Italy and Tunisia remained close to his heart. Attracted to Sciences Po by the economists of rue Saint-Guillaume and, more particularly, by Jean-Marcel Jeanneney, he succeeded the founder of the OFCE (French Economic Observatory) in 1989 and remained President of this important centre of research and expertise until 2010.

A brilliant and committed economist, internationally recognised by his peers, respected and loved by generations of students, consulted and listened to by the highest political leaders, read and heard by a wide audience, Jean-Paul Fitoussi was an eminent figure in his discipline.

Jean-Paul Fitoussi always endeavoured to put the most rigorous research and solidly substantiated studies at the service of economic policy, but also and above all at the service of citizens, who could not fully exercise their sovereignty today without what could be called a ‘general economic culture’. Jean-Paul Fitoussi promoted this general economic culture in two ways, in the lecture halls of Sciences Po and on the public stage.

Among all the commissions and councils he chaired or served on, there is one that was particularly close to his heart, the “Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress”, which, together with his two friends Joseph Stiglitz and Amartya Sen, he led in 2008-2009.

Jean-Paul Fitoussi was familiar with the greatest economists (Amartya Sen, Edmund Phelps and Joseph Stiglitz to name but a few) who, thanks to him, were frequent visitors to the OFCE and the Department of Economics, and the latter two of whom Sciences Po awarded honorary doctorates. Fitoussi’s modesty did not prevent him from showing his pleasure in and taste for intellectual dialogue and collective research with his peers, allowing Sciences Po to benefit from his prestigious network.

Jean-Paul Fitoussi contributed to many institutions in France, Europe and beyond, but he served none better and more faithfully than Sciences Po.

For forty years, he was one of the great architects of our establishment.

By presiding over and promoting the OFCE for more than twenty years, and by founding the Department of Economics at Sciences Po, Jean-Paul Fitoussi was foremost in contributing to making economics a major discipline at Sciences Po.

He played a central role in the life of our institution. President of the Academic Board from 1997 to 2010, member of the FNSP Board of Directors, representative of the founders for twenty years (2001- 2021), he contributed very actively to the transformation of our institution into an international research university, and played a very active and valuable role in shaping the future of Sciences Po until the last hours of his final mandate in May 2021.

One of his essential contributions was the reform of Sciences Po's tuition fees, based on the principles of progressiveness and redistribution. In 2003, the “Fitoussi Commission” submitted a report and recommendations to Richard Descoings to rethink social justice at Sciences Po. Jean-Paul Fitoussi knew that no issue is more important for our knowledge-based economies and for our open societies than the democratisation of access to higher education institutions.

A man of conviction, a courageous intellectual with a lively and piquant pen (as shown by his latest books), a subtle professor, an affable and elegant man, Jean-Paul Fitoussi was one of the emblematic figures of Sciences Po.

The thoughts of all the Sciences Po communities are with his wife, Annie, and his two children, Lisa and David.