Prof. Philippe Aghion is Robert C. Waggoner Professor of Economics at Harvard University, Program Director in Industrial Organization at CEPR, and Fellow at NBER and IFS. He is one of the most prolific and influential economists of his generation. He focuses much of his attention on the relationship between economic growth and policy. By focusing explicitly on innovations as a main source of economic growth, this approach opens the door to a deeper understanding of how organizations, competition policy, education, savings and the financial system, and macroeconomic policy both affect and are affected by growth, through how these interact with local entrepreneurs’ incentives to either innovate or to imitate the frontier technologies. In the process of trying to link growth and organizations, Prof. Aghion has also contributed to the field of contract theory and corporate governance. His work concentrates on the question of how to allocate authority and control rights within a firm, or between entrepreneurs and investors.
In addition to his academic research, Prof. Aghion has been associated with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) since 1990. He is non-resident Senior Fellow at Bruegel since September 2006, coordinating Bruegel’s research project on higher education, and is managing editor of the journal The Economics of Transition, which he launched in 1992.