Stoléru was born in Nantes and attended the École polytechnique, where he studied to be a mining engineer and graduated in 1956.
[2] Stoléru continued his studies at the École des Mines de Paris, and also did graduate studies at Stanford University in the US, earning a doctorate in economics[1] with Kenneth Arrow.
He also served in the cabinet of French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing as an economic advisor, beginning in 1969.
He subsequently held several administrative posts in several French governments: Stoléru learned the piano in his early years.
Stoléru and his wife Francine Wolff, who died in 2009, had one daughter, Emmanuelle.