Robert Solow

Professor Emeritus at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Robert Solow is Professor Emeritus at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was awarded the 1987 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for contributing to what is still the standard method of analysing the mechanics of economic growth, and for exhibiting the importance of research and technological innovation in improving economic productivity. In 1961, he received the John Bates Clark Award, given to the best economist under age 40. In 2000, he was awarded the National Medal of Science. Mr. Solow received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from Harvard University. He began teaching economics at the M.I.T in 1949, becoming a Full Professor in 1958 and Institute Professor in 1973. One of Mr. Solow’s main contributions to the advancement of economics came in the late 50s when he showed that about half of the U.S. economic growth until then cannot be accounted for by capital accumulation and labour increases. He attributed this unaccounted-for portion to technological innovation. Solow's studies have had a great impact in governments’ policies to augment funding towards technological research and development to spur economic growth. Mr. Solow also served on the staff of President John F. Kennedy's Council of Economic Advisors during the 1960s and was President of the American Economic Association in 1979. He published numerous articles in the most salient journals of economics as well as several books. Since 2000, Solow has been a Foundation Fellow at the Russell Sage Foundation where his current focus is a comparative study of low-range work in the U.S. and Europe.