Professor Ufuk Akcigit, University of Chicago

Tapping into Talent: Coupling Education and Innovation Policies for Economic Growth
Thursday 21 April, 3pm - 4.30pm
Zoom online seminar

Register at business-events@glasgow.ac.uk

Abstract

How do innovation and education policy affect individual career choice and aggregate productivity? This paper analyses the various layers that connect R&D subsidies and higher education policy to productivity growth. We put the development of scarce talent and career choice at the centre of a new endogenous growth framework with individual-level heterogeneity in talent, frictions, and preferences. We link the model to micro-level data from Denmark and uncover a host of facts about the links between talent, higher education, and innovation. We use these facts to calibrate the model and study counterfactual policy exercises. We find that R&D subsidies, while less effective than standard models, can be strengthened when combined with higher education policy that alleviates financial frictions for talented youth. Education and innovation policies not only alleviate different frictions, but also impact innovation at different time horizons. Education policy is also more effective in societies with high income inequality.

Biography

Ufuk Akcigit is the Arnold C. Harberger Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago. He is a Senior Research Fellow at Brookings Institute, an elected Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, Center for Economic Policy Research, and the Center for Economic Studies, and a Distinguished Research Fellow at Koc University. He has received a BA in Economics at Koc University, 2003, and PhD in Economics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2009. As a macroeconomist, Akcigit’s research centres on economic growth, technological creativity, innovation, entrepreneurship, productivity, and firm dynamics. His research has been repeatedly published in the top economics journals, cited by numerous policy reports, and the popular media. The contributions of Akcigit’s research has been recognised by the National Science Foundation with the CAREER Grant (NSF's most prestigious awards in support of early-career faculty), Kaufmann Foundation's Junior Faculty Grant, and Kiel Institute Excellence Award, among many other institutions. In 2019, Akcigit was named the winner of the Max Plank-Humboldt Research Award (endowed with 1.5 million euros and aimed at scientists with outstanding future potential). In 2021, Akcigit was awarded the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship and was named a Fellow of the Econometric Society.

Further information: business-events@glasgow.ac.uk 

First published: 8 April 2022

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