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Turkish American economist Daron Acemoglu has been named Institute Professor, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) highest faculty honor. Professor Acemoglu is now one of the 12 Institute Professors, along with 11 Institute Professors Emeriti.
Professor Acemoglu has been promoted to the rank of Institute Professor in recognition of his “significant impacts in diverse fields of economics.” The honor is an “exceptional distinction by a combination of leadership, accomplishment, and service in the scholarly, educational, and general intellectual life of the Institute and wider community.”
Daron Acemoglu is Elizabeth and James Killian Professor of Economics in the Department of Economics at MIT. He has received a BA in economics at the University of York, 1989, M.Sc. in mathematical economics and econometrics at the London School of Economics, 1990, and Ph.D. in economics at the London School of Economics in 1992.
He is an elected fellow of the National Academy of Sciences (United States), the Science Academy (Turkey), 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. Shultz Prize from the University of Chicago in 2004, and the inaugural Sherwin Rosen Award for outstanding contribution to labor economics in 2004, and the Distinguished Science Award from the Turkish Sciences Association in 2006.
Acemoglu was the recipient of the John Bates Clark Medal in 2005, awarded every two years to the best economist in the United States 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.
Professor Acemoglu’s areas of research include political economy, economic development and growth, human capital theory, growth theory, innovation, search theory, network economics and learning.
He is the co-author of the book “Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty,” where their major thesis is that economic prosperity depends above all on the inclusiveness of economic and political institutions. Institutions are "inclusive" when many people have a say in political decision-making, as opposed to cases where a small group of people control political institutions and are unwilling to change.
Source: MIT News
