Simon Kuznets Memorial Lecture Series

Simon Kuznets, 1901-1985
The Simon Kuznets Memorial Lecture is an annual event hosted by the Yale Economic Growth Center since 1987, featuring a prominent economist speaking on issues in economic development. Since 2020, the Kuznets lecture has been combined with a mini-conference (typically the day after the lecture) that showcases cutting-edge research by early-career researchers on topics covered in the lecture. In Fall 2022, EGC launched the Kuznets Visiting Faculty Program, which brings economists to Yale for visits of 1-2 weeks.
The lecture series was founded by EGC Faculty members in 1986 to honor Simon Kuznets, who had helped found the Center. The series is dedicated to “Quantitative Aspects of the Economic Growth of Nations,” the title Kuznets gave to his pioneering series of ten short monographs that were published by Economic Development and Cultural Change between 1956 and 1967.
Born in 1901 in what is today Belarus, Kuznets helped launch the US national income statistics series in 1934. The motivation was to use data for policy – the statistics series was issued to meet the need to describe consistently and in detail the economic toll taken by the Great Depression. Post World War II, Kuznets saw a need for a center to do what his home institutions weren’t able to do – to use data to understand development. He believed Yale was the ideal home for such a venture and he worked with the chair of Yale’s economics department and Ford Foundation to set up EGC in 1961.
Kuznets went on to receive the Nobel Prize in 1971 for theoretical and empirical contributions to the measurement of economic growth, and remained a senior consultant for EGC until his death in 1985.
The 2026 Kuznets Lecture
Douglas Irwin will deliv the 35th Simon Kuznets Memorial Lecture on Thursday, March 26, 2026. As with recent Kuznets events, the lecture will be followed by a mini-conference featuring research on Trade Reform, Exchange Rates, and Economic History.
Douglas Irwin is the John French Professor of Economics at Dartmouth College. He is president-elect of the Economic History Association (2022-23). He is a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research and a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. He worked on trade policy issues while on the staff of President Ronald Reagan's Council of Economic Advisers and later worked in the International Finance Division at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in Washington, D.C. His research focuses on international trade, particularly in the areas of U.S. trade policy, economic history, and the impact of trade on economic growth.
Past Presenters

34th Annual Kuznets Memorial Lecture, 2025
Oriana Bandiera, London School of Economics
“Development and the Organization of Labor”
Date: February 27, 2025
Location: Kline Tower
Watch the video of Oriana Bandiera's lecture.
View the program schedule of the Development and Organizations Conference, which followed the lecture, and read the highlights from this 2025 Kuznets Mini-Conference.

33rd Annual Kuznets Memorial Lecture, 2024
Chris Udry, Northwestern University
"Structural change and declining agricultural productivity: Evidence from sub-Saharan Africa"
Date: April 4, 2024
Location: Kline Tower
Watch the video and read the Q&A with Chris Udry.
View the program schedule of the Agriculture and Development Conference, which followed the lecture, and read the highlights from this 2024 Kuznets Mini-Conference.

32nd Annual Kuznets Memorial Lecture, 2023
Eliana La Ferrara, Harvard Kennedy School
"Changing Harmful Norms"
Date: March 02, 2023
Location: Luce Hall
Watch the video and read the Q&A with Eliana La Ferrara.
View the program schedule of the Norms, Gender, and Development Conference, which followed the lecture, and read the highlights from this 2023 Kuznets Mini-Conference.

31st Annual Kuznets Memorial Lecture, 2022
Leonard Wantchekon, Princeton University
"Political Distortions and Economic Development"
Date: Mar 31, 2022
Location: Luce Hall
Watch the video and read the Q&A with Leonard Wantchekon.
View the program schedule of the Political Distortions and Economic Development Conference, which followed the lecture, and read the highlights from this 2022 Kuznets Mini-Conference.

30th Annual Kuznets Memorial Lecture, 2020
Pinelopi Koujianou Goldberg, Yale University
"Poverty Reduction in the Era of Waning Globalization"
Date: Feb 27, 2020
Location: Luce Hall
Watch the video and read the Q&A with Penny Goldberg.
View the program schedule of the Trade and Development Conference, which followed the lecture, and read about the highlights from this 2020 Kuznets Mini-Conference.