Daron Acemoglu

Daron Acemoglu
Acemoglu in 2016
Born	Kamer Daron Acemoğlu (1967-09-03) September 3, 1967 (age 56) Istanbul, Turkey
Citizenship	Turkey and United States
Education	University of York (BA) London School of Economics (MSc, PhD)
Spouse	Asu Ozdaglar
Academic career
Institution	London School of Economics (1989–1993) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1993–present)
Field	Political economy Economic growth Development economics Labour economics
School or tradition	New institutional economics
Doctoral advisor	Kevin W. S. Roberts
Doctoral students	Robert Shimer • Mark Aguiar • Pol Antràs • Gabriel Carroll • Melissa Dell • Benjamin Jones • Ufuk Akcigit
Influences	Joel Mokyr • Kenneth Sokoloff • Douglass North • Seymour Martin Lipset • Barrington Moore
Awards	John Bates Clark Medal (2005) John von Neumann Award (2007) Erwin Plein Nemmers Prize in Economics (2012) BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award (2016)
Information at IDEAS / RePEc

Kamer Daron Acemoğlu (Turkish: [daˈɾon aˈdʒemoːɫu]; born September 3, 1967) is an American economist of Armenian descent who has taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology since 1993, where he is currently the Elizabeth and James Killian Professor of Economics.^[1] He received the John Bates Clark Medal in 2005, and was named an Institute Professor at MIT in 2019.^[1]

Born to Armenian parents in Istanbul, Acemoglu received a BA from the University of York in 1989, and a PhD from the London School of Economics (LSE) in 1992. He lectured at LSE for a year before joining the Department of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 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 them with his long-time collaborators Simon Johnson and James A. Robinson. With Robinson, he co-authored the books 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, received wide scholarly and media attention. 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 Research Papers in Economics (RePEc) data. According to the Open Syllabus Project, Acemoglu is the third most frequently cited author on college syllabi for economics courses after Mankiw and Krugman.^[2]