News
Press, cohorts, awards, lectures.
Updates from the Growth Academy and its co-directors. The chronological feed; click in for the longer read.
Dec 18, 2025
Cohort
Tokyo: World Bank IED, JADE, ADBI, UNU partner on Asia edition.
Forty-plus economists. The framing question: what does Japan's own development arc teach the rest of Asia.
Read →Oct 22, 2025
Awards
Akcigit awarded the Rahmi M. Koç Medal of Science.
Türkiye's most prestigious recognition for scholars of Turkish origin under fifty. Past laureates include Acemoglu and Hortaçsu.
Read →Sep 12, 2025
Press
WDR 2026 on AI: Akcigit named a Co-Academic Lead.
The 2026 World Development Report will focus on Artificial Intelligence for Development. Akcigit serves as a Co-Academic Lead, alongside Susan Athey.
Read →Aug 14, 2025
Lectures
Engineering Ukraine's Wirtschaftswunder: NBER Working Paper 34103.
Akcigit, Kilic, Lall, Shpak. Twenty-five years of firm data show why Ukraine's competitive economy hollowed out.
Read →Jun 30, 2025
Press
Akcigit named to the IMF Managing Director's Advisory Council on Entrepreneurship and Growth.
Joins a council that includes Marc Benioff, Ana Botín, Tony Elumelu, HRH Reema Bandar Al-Saud, and Margherita Della Valle.
Read →May 26, 2025
Cohort
Bucharest convenes ECA: Romania's National Bank co-hosts.
Twenty-two senior policymakers from across Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The Greater Heights agenda.
Read →May 4, 2025
Cohort
Cairo: H.E. Rania Al-Mashat opens MENA edition.
Egypt's Minister of Planning opens the regional edition. Climate adaptation, digital transformation, cross-border trade.
Read →Nov 21, 2024
Press
AI for Development: a roundtable to seed the 2026 World Development Report.
A Chicago brainstorming session convening fifteen scholars and practitioners to set the agenda for the World Bank's 2026 World Development Report on AI.
Read →Oct 8, 2024
Cohort
The inaugural Growth Academy brought the World Development Report to practitioners.
Two weeks at UChicago and the World Bank in Washington. Twenty-eight participants, twenty-four faculty, the WDR 2024 launch.
Read →Sep 11, 2024
Press
What middle-income countries can learn from America's innovation system.
A Growth Academy research brief drawing three lessons from the U.S. innovation system, grounded in the World Development Report 2024.
Read →Questions? Or interested in attending? We’d love to hear from you.
