Economists converge at MIT
A recovery from recession is under way, but the uncertain state of the global economy and of the economics profession were major themes discussed during a special symposium at MIT on Thursday and Friday. An array of stars in economics and finance, including seven Nobel Prize winners, prominent policymakers and influential public intellectuals, convened to honor the Institute’s influential economics program, with the event acting as both an Institute family reunion and a debate forum.The event, “Economics and Finance: from Theory to Practice to Policy” — one of six academic symposia taking place as part of MIT’s 150th anniversary — celebrated the program that gave economics scientific credibility, a legacy dating to the late Paul Samuelson in the 1940s. Since then, MIT economics has emphasized sophisticated methods more than a governing ideology; its scholars have developed influential macroeconomic models, “natural experiments” using already-existing data to replicate lab studies, randomized field...