Daron Acemoglu
A professor of Applied Economics at M.I.T., Daron Acemoglu is among the “20 most cited economists in the world.” (Daron). Acemoglu is describe as hot as an economists gets. He has received the prestigious John Bates Clark Medal. Acemoglu is the co-author, with Harvard 's James Robinson, of the New York Times bestseller Why Nations Fail, which, like Jared Diamond 's Guns, Germs, and Steel, is a major work of historical, political and cultural heft that comes along once every few years. “Born in Turkey and educated in England, Acemoglu has written for mainstream magazines such as Esquire and co-edits academic publications, such as The Journal of Economic Growth” (Daron). Acemoglu 's expertise stretches across a full spectrum of macroeconomics, with a focus on the role of institutions in economic development: how will institutions react to the demographic shifts to the 21st century? How will the rise of new superpowers change the global economy?
James A. Robinson
James Robinson is David Florence Professor of Government at Harvard University and a faculty associate at the Institute for Quantitative Social Science and the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. He studied economics at the London School of Economics, the University of Warwick and Yale University. He previously taught in the Department of Economics at the University of Melbourne, the University of Southern California and before moving to Harvard was a Professor in the Departments of Economics and Political Science at the University of California at Berkeley. His main research interests are in comparative economic and political development with a focus on the long-run with a particular interest in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa. He is currently conducting research in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone, Haiti and in Colombia where he has taught for many years during the summer at the University of the Andes in Bogotá.