Daron Acemoglu, born 1967, is a Turkish-born American economist who has taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) since 1993. Born to Armenian parents in Istanbul, Acemoglu was educated in the UK and completed his PhD at the London School of Economics (LSE) at 25. He lectured at LSE for a year before joining the MIT. He was awarded the John Bates Clark Medal in 2005. Acemoglu is best known for his work on political economy. He has authored hundreds of papers, many of which are co-authored with his long-time collaborators Simon Johnson and James A. Robinson. With Robinson, he authored Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy (2006) and Why Nations Fail (2012).
