George A. Akerlof

Koshland Professor of Economics
University of California, Berkeley

George Arthur Akerlof is an American economist and Koshland Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley. He won the 2001 Nobel Prize in Economics (shared with Michael Spence and Joseph E. Stiglitz). Akerlof graduated from the Lawrenceville School and received his B.A. degree from Yale University in 1962, and his Ph.D. degree from MIT in 1966, and has taught at the London School of Economics. Akerlof is perhaps best known for his article, "The Market for Lemons: Quality Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism", published in Quarterly Journal of Economics in 1970, in which he identified certain severe problems that afflict markets characterized by asymmetrical information.

 

My Additional Content

Presentation prepared for Bretton Woods Conference: George Akerlof

 

Efficient Markets Hypothesis and Causes of Crisis

Presentation given at the Conference @ King's, April 8th-11th, 2010.

My Video Content

George Akerlof: The Economics of Climate Change Super Simple
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George Akerlof, professor at the University of California at Berkeley says that in terms of climate change, the economics are pretty simple: tax the bads (like carbon.) The problem is fundamentally political. Akerlof suggests this political problem can in part be resolved by raising awareness about climate change’s importance.

Interviewed by Daniel Erasmus at King's College, April 2010.

Bretton Woods, Past and Present: 3. Models in Economics
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What is a good model in economics? “The Kids” asked a dozen economists in the halls of the Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, and we invite you to watch what they said.

Good models are those that pass the test of time, says Philippe Aghion. Brad DeLong presents what has come to be called Friedman’s “F-Twist”: assumptions don’t matter – a good model is one that predicts well. Wrong, says Anatole Kaletsky, economists ought to model the whole range of human behavior, and doing so requires re-examining the very assumptions on which our models rest. And to George Akerlof, a good model applies to the specific question asked; it corresponds to the problem at hand.

About The Kids:

Bretton Woods, Past and Present: 2. Progress in Economics
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When is one theory better than the other? What is progress in economics? "The Kids" asked a dozen economists in the halls of the Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, and we invite you to watch what they said.

In 2008, the world avoided making the policy mistakes of the Great Depression. That's progress, says George Akerlof. Anatole Kaletsky tells us what progress is not: to introduce, in the name of rigor, ever more unrealistic assumptions in economics, however mathematically convenient these may be. And James Galbraith compares progress to pornography: it's hard to define, but you recognize it if you ever see it.

Equity, Adjustment and Balance - Q&A and Discussion
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Q&A and discussion in the panel ""Rising to the Challenge: Equity, Adjustment and Balance in the World Economy" with Chrystia Freeland, George Akerlof, Niall Ferguson, Andres Velasco, and Zhu Min at the Bretton Woods Conference on April 10, 2011.

Equity, Adjustment and Balance - George Akerlof
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George Akerlof, Koshland Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, speaking in the panel "Rising to the Challenge: Equity, Adjustment and Balance in the World Economy" at the Bretton Woods Conference on April 10, 2011.