Keynote SpeakerDaron Acemoglu

Technology doesn’t have to just serve an elite few, says Daron Acemoglu. We can tap into its massive potential right now, and build a world where everyone benefits from the progress that innovation brings us.

Daron won the 2024 Nobel Prize for Economics for his groundbreaking work on the key role strong institutions play in a country’s democracy and wellbeing, encapsulated in his international bestseller Why Nations Fail (co-authored with his frequent collaborator, The University of Chicago’s James Robinson). Drawing on fascinating real-world stories like the town on the U.S./Mexico border that has a dramatic difference in prosperity on either side of the border, Daron reveals how we can leverage our institutions to improve our communities and our world. In a moment where our democracy stands at a crossroads, his work has never been more vital.

One of the most renowned economists on the planet, Daron is a historian who looks at what has happened and tells you what will happen next, with deep expertise in the impacts of technology on democracy, culture, and civilization. In his most recent book Power and Progress, co-authored with fellow Nobel Prize winner Simon Johnson, he shows us how technology has historically been used to benefit a select few, but we can regain control and turn today’s advances into empowering and democratizing tools. In talks, he gives us the big-picture vision we need to change the way we innovate in order to use our creativity for the good of humanity. The Financial Times named Power and Progress to their Best Technology Books of 2023, recognizing that Daron’s insights into power, institutions, and social progress are vital in an age of ever-evolving AI. Daron is also the editor of Redesigning AI, a look at how new technologies can be put to use in the creation of a more just society.

With James Robinson, Daron co-authored the New York Times bestseller Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty—a major work of historical, political, and cultural heft that comes along only once every few years. Throughout this ambitious, bracing work (shortlisted for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award), Daron answers a question that has confounded leading minds for centuries: why are some nations rich, while others poor? Instead of looking to weather, cultural practices, or geography, we need to look to institutions, he argues—both strong and poor, political and economic—to understand prosperity and success. Called “required reading for politicians and anyone concerned with economic development” by Jared Diamond (Guns, Germs, and Steel), and “a splendid piece of scholarship and a showcase of economic rigor” by The Wall Street Journal, Why Nations Fail offers illuminating solutions to our most fundamental economic problems: how to move billions out of poverty, build robust, sustainable institutions, and empower effective democracy.

Daron and James also wrote The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies, and the Fate of Liberty: the highly anticipated follow-up to Why Nations Fail. It’s a vital, big-picture assessment of how liberty flourishes in select states, yet devolves into authoritarianism or even anarchy in others—and how liberty can keep thriving, in spite of new, global threats. The Narrow Corridor was named one of both the Financial Times and Kirkus Reviews’ Best Books of 2019. Called “A work of staggering ambition…Smart and timely,” by Newsweek, and “Another outstanding, insightful book by Acemoglu and Robinson,” by Nobel Laureate Peter Diamond, The Narrow Corridor is an essential exploration of liberty for today’s age.

Daron is an MIT Institute Professor (the highest title awarded to faculty members) and an elected fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Econometric Society, and the Society of Labor Economists. His academic work covers a wide range of areas, including political economy, economic development, economic growth, inequality, labor economics, and economics of networks. He is the author of five books, including Why Nations Fail and The Narrow Corridor. Daron has also written for mainstream magazines such as Esquire and Foreign Policy, is a regular speaker for banks, think tanks, corporations, and other major institutions across the globe, and has received high-profile attention in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Financial Times, Bloomberg Businessweek, The Economist, and many more. He also co-edits academic publications, such as The Journal of Economic Growth.

A professor of Applied Economics at MIT, Daron was twice named one of Foreign Policy’s Top 100 Global Thinkers, as well as the 2019 winner of the Kiel Institute’s Global Economy Prize. He has received the prestigious John Bates Clark Medal for being a top economist under 40, the Nemmers Prize in Economics, the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award, and an Andrew Carnegie fellowship.