Sir James Alexander Mirrlees was a British economist and winner of the 1996 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. He was knighted in the 1997 Birthday Honours. The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1996, announced October 8, 1996. James A. Mirrlees and William Vickrey, “for their fundamental contributions to the economic theory of incentives under asymmetric information”. James A. Mirrlees: born 1936, Minnigaff, Scotland. William Vickrey: born 1914, Victoria, BC, Canada. Wiki link Wiki link Data: the Nobel Foundation (CC0).