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French economist Daniel Cohen dies at 70. Emmanuel Macron pays tribute
French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire called Cohen a towering economist and praised his advice to the government during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Daniel Cohen, a professor and Lazard adviser who led the Paris School of Economics, died Sunday, his publisher said. He was 70.
“We lost a great intellectual,” French President Emmanuel Macron said on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, adding to tributes pouring in, including from Allianz SE chief economic adviser Mohamed El-Erian.
French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire called Cohen a towering economist and praised his advice to the government during the Covid-19 pandemic. Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said his voice will be missed in the public debate.
Cohen’s publisher, Albin Michel, didn’t reveal the cause of his death. The author has been suffering from a blood disease, according to Le Monde newspaper.
Cohen was a senior adviser on Lazard’s sovereign advisory team.
“His vision and his expertise were crucial to help many governments navigate periods of major financial struggles,” Lazard’s director general, Jean-Louis Girodolle, said in an emailed statement.
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The French economist was also the chairman of the Finance for Development Lab, a Paris-based think tank supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
A prolific author, Cohen wrote award-winning books including Homo Economicus: The (Lost) Prophet of Modern Times, which argued that the modern world has defined happiness mostly in terms of material achievement.
Former French President Francois Hollande, a Socialist whom Cohen endorsed in 2012, cited Cohen’s warnings on the risks of big tech and said his death was “a huge loss” for economic research.
