IF PHILOSOPHERS in France are national treasures, economists are dreary specimens. But the discipline has some new star dust. One French economist, Jean Tirole, won the Nobel prize for economics. Another, Thomas Piketty, brought in rock-star quality when his book, “Capital”, became a bestseller in English. When the IMF recently listed the world’s 25 best young economists, seven (including Mr Piketty) were French.
What explains this resurgence? One answer is the rivalry of two institutions that have tried to defy the fragmented and divided world of French higher education: the Toulouse School of Economics (TSE) and the Paris School of Economics (PSE). Each has rebranded itself with an English name, created a private fund-raising foundation, recruited worldwide, and introduced English as the teaching language. Each has a claim to excellence: PSE (where Mr Piketty is a professor) ranks seventh among economics departments worldwide, and TSE (chaired by Mr Tirole) is 11th, according to the RePEc ranking used by economists.The two have chosen different paths. As part of a university, TSE is more recognisably a…