Prof. Acemoglus Clark Medal

Prof. Acemoglu’s Clark Medal On the front page of the Business section of todays Boston Globe, theres a story on the John Bates Clark Medal being awarded to MIT Economics Professor Daron Acemoglu. The Clark Medal is awarded every two years to an American economist under the age of 40 for making a significant contribution to economic thought and knowledge. Of the 29 Clark medalists to date, 11 have gone on to win the Nobel Prize in Economics. MIT Economics Professor Daron Acemoglu MIT professor named top economist under 40 Key study minimizes geography in formation of rich vs. poor nations By Robert Gavin, Globe Staff | June 15, 2005 CAMBRIDGE Daron Acemoglu grew up in Turkey during a tumultuous period of economic crises and political unrest, when hyperinflation sapped spending power; rural poor streamed into cities, only to find squalor and more poverty; and terrorist attacks frequently rocked the nation, leading to the military coup of 1980. Living through these times, Acemoglu, the only child of a middle-class couple, said he often wondered why Turkeys development lagged that of the United States and other industrialized nations. Some two decades later, as an economist and professor at MIT, he came up with an answer. Acemoglus groundbreaking work in explaining that gap between rich and poor nations recently helped him win the John Bates Clark Medal, awarded every two years by the American Economic Association to the nations top economist under 40. Acemoglu, 37, joins an elite club that includes 11 Nobel Prize recipients, and giants of the field such as MITs Paul Samuelson, the University of Chicagos Milton Friedman, and Harvards Martin Feldstein. [Read the entire story] My favorite part of the Globe story, though, was the final quote of the article, which seems just so MIT to me: Whenever I see a problem, I become curious, Acemoglu said. I love research, and its just so hard to give anything up. Back in 1973, my Microeconomics (14.01) Professor, Frank Fisher, won the Clark Medal. Fisher is considered one of the worlds leading economists in the area of antitrust and monopolies. MIT professors Paul Samuelson and Robert Solow (both Nobel Laureates) as well as Jerry Hausman have also won the Clark Medal.