BELMONT, Mass.—Dr. Daron Acemoglu, the Elizabeth and James Killian Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and Dr. David A. Grigorian, the co-founder of Policy Forum Armenia, will present “Armenia’s Economic Development: Prospects for Growth and Risks of Failure” on Wed., Oct. 9, at 7:30 p.m., at the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) in Belmont.
In this special forum, economist Daron Acemoglu will discuss his acclaimed book, Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty (2012, co-authored by James A. Robinson). Why Nations Fail addresses a question that has stumped experts for centuries: Why are some nations rich and others poor, divided by wealth and poverty, health and sickness, food and famine? Economic analyst David Grigorian will address the specific case of Armenia today, drawing on Acemoglu’s general model and his own experience with the particularities of Armenia and the economic challenges it faces.
Acemoglu received his Ph.D. in economics at the London School of Economics in 1992, and in 2005 received the John Bates Clark Medal awarded to economists under 40 judged to have made the most significant contribution to economic thought and knowledge. His books include Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy (with James A. Robinson), which was awarded the Woodrow Wilson and the William Riker prizes, Introduction to Modern Economic Growth, and Why Nations Fail.
Grigorian is a senior economist at the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Monetary and Capital Markets Department in Washington, D.C. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Maryland at College Park (2001). In his current position, he deals with a wide array of emerging market economies covering issues such as sovereign debt restructuring, public debt management strategy, and capital market development. He is a co-founder of Policy Forum Armenia (www.pf-armenia.org), a 501(c)3 non-profit think tank aimed at strengthening discourse on Armenia’s economic development and national security.
The NAASR Bookstore will open at 7 p.m. the night of the lecture. The program is free and open to the general public. For more information about this program, call (617) 489-1610, e-mail hq@naasr.org, or write to NAASR, 395 Concord Ave., Belmont, MA 02478.
Guest Contributor
It will be interesting to know the outcome of this forum; have the speakers visited Armenia and they will introduce factual information on the subject.