(Paris) The economist Daniel Cohen, a figure in the academic world and author of numerous essays, died on Sunday at the age of 70, his publisher Albin Michel told AFP, confirming information from the newspaper Le Monde.

Known to the general public for his interventions in the media, this specialist in sovereign debt, born in 1953 in Tunis, was notably president of the Paris School of Economics, an internationally recognized university center for economic research. Albin Michel expressed his “tremendous sadness” to AFP.

Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne learned with “sadness” of the disappearance of Mr. Cohen, whose “vision of the French economy and the great revolutions, in particular digital, will be missed in the public debate”, she declared on X (formerly Twitter) .

The Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire hailed him, “an immense economist, but also an outstanding pedagogue, a pioneer of new ideas, a brilliant and convincing author”, on X.

“He will have been invaluable advice during the COVID crisis. We are all losing a voice and a friend,” the minister said.

Daniel Cohen, whose last book Homo numericus: The Coming ‘Civilization’ was published in 2022, was close to the left.

He had supported François Hollande in the presidential election in 2012, then Benoît Hamon in 2017, seduced then by his idea of ​​universal income.