Biographical note

Daron Acemoglu is the Elizabeth and James Killian Professor of Economics in the Department of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has received a BA in economics from the University of York, an MSc in mathematical economics and econometrics from the London School of Economics, and a PhD in economics from the London School of Economics.

He is an elected fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Econometric Society, the European Economic Association, and the Society of Labor Economists. He has received numerous awards and fellowships, including the inaugural T. W. Schultz Prize from the University of Chicago in 2004, the inaugural Sherwin Rosen Award for outstanding contribution to labor economics in 2004, the Distinguished Science Award from the Turkish Sciences Association in 2006, and the John von Neumann Award, Rajk College, Budapest, in 2007.

On 14 October 2024, the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded jointly to Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, and James A. Robinson “for studies of how institutions are formed and affect prosperity.” He was also the recipient of the John Bates Clark Medal in 2005, awarded every two years to the best economist in the US under the age of 40 by the American Economic Association, and the Erwin Plein Nemmers Prize, awarded every two years for work of lasting significance in economics. He holds honorary doctorates from the University of Utrecht and Bosporus University.

His research interests include political economy, economic development and growth, human capital theory, growth theory, innovation, search theory, network economics, and learning.

His books include Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy (jointly with James A. Robinson), which was awarded the Woodrow Wilson and the William Riker prizes, Introduction to Modern Economic Growth, and Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty (jointly with James A. Robinson), which has become a New York Times bestseller.

David Laibson is the Chair of the Harvard Economics Department and the Robert I. Goldman Professor of Economics at Harvard University. He holds degrees from Harvard University (AB in economics),the London School of Economics (MSc in econometrics and mathematical economics), and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (PhD in economics).

He is also a member of the National Bureau of Economic Research, where he is Research Associate in the Asset Pricing, Economic Fluctuations, and Aging Working Groups. His research focuses on the topics of behavioral economics, intertemporal choice, macroeconomics, and household finance, and he leads Harvard University’s Foundations of Human Behavior Initiative.

He serves on several editorial boards, as well as the Pension Research Council (Wharton), Harvard’s Pension Investment Committee, and the Board of the Russell Sage Foundation. He has previously served on the boards of the Health and Retirement Study (National Institutes of Health) and the Academic Research Council of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

He is a recipient of a Marshall Scholarship and a Fellow of the Econometric Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is also a recipient of the T. W. Schultz Prize from the University of Chicago and the TIAA-CREF Paul A. Samuelson Award for Outstanding Scholarly Writing on Lifelong Financial Security. In recognition of his teaching excellence, he has been awarded Harvard’s Phi Beta Kappa Prize and a Harvard College Professorship.

John A. List is the Kenneth C. Griffin Distinguished Service Professor in Economics at the University of Chicago, and Chairman of the Department of Economics. He received his BS in economics from the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point and his PhD in economics from the University of Wyoming. Before joining the University of Chicago in 2005, he was a professor at the University of Central Florida, University of Arizona, and University of Maryland. He also served in the White House on the Council of Economic Advisers from 2002–2003 and is a Research Associate at the NBER.