Daron Acemoglu
Monday, November 30, -1Kamer Daron Acemoğlu (Turkish: [dɑˈɾon ɑd͡ʒeˈmoːɫu]; born September 3, 1967) is a Turkish-born American economist who has taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) since 1993. He is currently Elizabeth and James Killian Professor of Economics at MIT.
Born to Armenian parents in Istanbul, Acemoglu was educated in the UK and completed his PhD at the London School of Economics (LSE) at 25. He lectured at LSE for a year before joining the MIT. He was awarded the John Bates Clark Medal in 2005. Acemoglu is best known for his work on political economy. He has authored hundreds of papers, many of which are co-authored with his long-time collaborators Simon Johnson and James A. Robinson. With Robinson, he authored Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy (2006) and Why Nations Fail (2012). The latter, an influential book on the role that institutions play in shaping nations' economic outcomes, prompted wide scholarly and media commentary. Described as a centrist, he believes in a regulated market economy. He regularly comments on political issues, economic inequality, and a variety of specific policies.
Acemoglu ranked third, behind Paul Krugman and Greg Mankiw, in the list of "Favorite Living Economists Under Age 60" in a 2011 survey among American economists. In 2015 he was named the most cited economist of the past 10 years per IDEAS/RePEc data.
Kamer Daron Acemoğlu was born in Istanbul, Turkey to Armenian parents on September 3, 1967.[1] He is the only child of Kevork Acemoglu (1938−1988), a commercial lawyer and lecturer at Istanbul University, and Irma (d. 1991), principal of Aramyan Uncuyan, an Armenian school in the Kadıköy district. He attended an Armenian school in Istanbuland graduated from Galatasaray High School in 1986.He became interested in politics and economics as a teenager. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in economics at the University of York in 1989, his Master of Science (in mathematical economics and econometrics) and PhD (in economics) from the London School of Economics (LSE), in 1990 and 1992, respectively. His doctoral thesis was titled "Essays in Microfoundations of Macroeconomics: Contracts and Economic Performance."James Malcomson, one of his doctoral examiners at the LSE, said that even the weakest three of the seven chapters of his thesis were "more than sufficient for the award of a PhD."
Acemoglu is a naturalized US citizen.]He is fluent in English and Turkish. He is married to Asuman "Asu" Ozdağlar, a professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)and daughter of İsmail Özdağlar, a former Turkish government minister. Together they have authored several articles. As of 2015, they live in Newton, Massachusetts with their two sons (Arda and Aras).
Acemoglu was a lecturer in economics at the LSE from 1992 to 1993. He began lecturing at the MIT in 1993, when he was appointed Assistant Professor of Economics. He was granted a tenure at MIT in 1998,[29] and promoted to full professor in 2000.[30] In 2004 he became Charles P. Kindleberger Professor of Applied Economics. Since 2010 Acemoglu has been the Elizabeth and James Killian Professor of Economics at MIT.[1] In 2014 he made US$841,380, making him one of the top earners at MIT.[
He is a fellow of the United States National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Econometric Society, European Economic Association, and other learned societies. He is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a Senior Fellow at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research.He was the editor of Econometrica, an academic journal published by the Econometric Society, from 2011 to 2015.
Acemoglu noted that most of his research has been "motivated by trying to understand the sources of poverty. His research includes a wide range of topics, including political economy, human capital theory, growth theory, economic development, innovation, labor economics, income and wage inequality, etc. He noted in 2011 that most his research of the past 15 years concerned with what can be broadly called political economy. He has made significant contribution to the labor economics field.
Acemoglu has extensively collaborated with James A. Robinson, a British political scientist, since 1993. Acemoglu has described it as a "very productive relationship." They have worked together on a number of articles and several books, most of which on the subject of growth and economic development.The two have also extensively collaborated with economist Simon Johnson.
Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy
Published by Cambridge University Press in 2006, Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy by Acemoglu and Robinson analyzes the creation and consolidation of democratic societies. They argue that "democracy consolidates when elites do not have strong incentive to overthrow it. These processes depend on (1) the strength of civil society, the structure of political institutions, (3) the nature of political and economic crises, (4) the level of economic inequality, (5) the structure of the economy, and (6) the form and extent of globalization." Romain Wacziarg praised the book and argued that its substantive contribution is the theoretical fusion of the Marxist dialectical materialism ("institutional change results from distributional struggles between two distinct social groups, a rich ruling class and a poor majority, each of whose interests are shaped primarily by economic forces") and the ideas of Barry Weingast and Douglass North, who argued that "institutional reform can be a way for the elite to credibly commit to future policies by delegating their enactment to interests that will not wish to reverse them." William Easterly called it "one of the most important contributions to the literature on the economics of democracy in a long time." Edward Glaeser described it "enormously significant" work and a "great contribution to the field.