Jean Tirole, winner of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, said banks that benefit from government support should face tough regulation.

"We need strong rules that are going to prevent banks from gambling with taxpayers' money," Tirole, an economics professor at the University of Toulouse, said in an interview with Erik Schatzker on Bloomberg Television today. "If they are to be bailed out, they have to be regulated."

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which forms the selection committee, said Tirole's work on regulating powerful companies and unbalanced markets helped him win the 8 million-krona (US$1.1 million) prize. The recognition the prize carries has helped previous winners bring their economic theories closer to policy making. Past laureates include Milton Friedman, James Tobin, and Friedrich August von Hayek.