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How Does a Country Develop? Professor Dr. Ufuk Akçiğit is a faculty member in the Department of Economics at the University of Chicago and holds the ''Arnold C. Harberger'' Chair. As a macroeconomist, his research focuses on economic growth, production efficiency, competition, privatization, industrial policies, firm dynamics, human capital, and innovation economics. Prof. Dr. Akçiğit was awarded the Max Planck-Humboldt research award, one of Germany's prestigious awards, in 2019 for his successful work in the field of macroeconomics. Thanks to the 1.5 million Euro research fund given for the first time in the field of social sciences in the world, he and the team he formed examine the economic disruptions experienced during the unification of East and West Germany in the 1990s and the ongoing income disparity. Prof. Dr. Akçiğit won the Guggenheim Award in Economics in 2021, which is given by the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, one of the most established and respected foundations in the USA, “to professionals who have demonstrated extraordinary ability in the fields of arts and sciences.” Prof. Dr. Akçiğit was awarded the $0.5 Million CAREER Award, the most prestigious research award given by the American National Science Foundation for young academics. He also won the Global Economy Prize, two of Germany's most prestigious awards, and the Sakıp Sabancı International Research Award in 2022. Prof. Dr. Akçiğit received his BA in Economics from Koç University in Istanbul in 2003 and later completed his PhD in Economics with his thesis titled "Economic Growth and Innovation Policies" at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2009. Currently, he is also a Research Professor and Research Group Head at the Halle Institute for Economic Research in Germany, a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research in Boston, the Center for Economic Policy Research in London, the Brookings Institution in Washington, and the CESifo Institute in Munich. Prof. Dr. Ufuk Akçiğit is a member of the Board of Trustees of Koç University. Prof. Dr. Akçiğit has been and is currently providing project consultancy to many important national and international institutions (some in alphabetical order: Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Danish Ministry of Higher Education and Science, World Bank, Hutchins Productivity Measurement Center, IMF, OECD, TCMB). This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx