The productive career of Robert Solow by Peter Dizikes published by MIT Technology Review (12/2019).
“Last summer, as he turned 95, the economist Robert M. Solow sat at home poring over a draft outline of “The Work of the Future,” an MIT report about technology, jobs, and economic growth. Solow has been studying these topics since he returned from fighting in World War II—and won a Nobel Prize in 1987 for demonstrating that technological innovation generates a huge portion of economic growth.
True, Solow’s eyes bother him these days, and he reads less than he once did. His wife, Barbara, herself an economic historian, died in 2014, after nearly 70 years of marriage. And the economics colleagues he worked alongside for decades at MIT—and with whom he built a powerhouse department from scratch—are no longer around either.
“I’m the only one who’s still inhaling and exhaling,” Solow says wryly, sitting on his living-room couch.
But Solow, an Institute Professor emeritus, is doing quite a bit more than that. He reads academic literature, including papers about productivity, and follows economic trends, world events, and policy debates. His “wickedly devious sense of humor,” as his Institute Professor colleague Daron Acemoglu puts it, remains intact. Having joined MIT in 1949, Solow is a macroeconomist whose career almost predates the word “macroeconomics.” Yet here he is seven decades later, rigorously examining the draft materials of the new work report…”
Verificar PDF Anexado
