Economics speaker Michael Kremer is Harvard University’s Department of Economics’ Gates Professor of Developing Societies. In 2019, he co-received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. Michael is a MacArthur Fellowship recipient and a Presidential Faculty Fellowship, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. World Economic Forum listed Kremer as a Young Global Leader.

Kremer studied at Harvard and obtained a Ph.D. in Economics. He is also part of the Precision Agriculture for Development board.

Recently, Kremer’s work has examined issues such as water and agriculture in underdeveloped countries as well as education and health. Scientific American named Michael one of the top 50 researchers of 2006. He has received awards for his research in agricultural economics, health economics, and Latin American studies.

He contributed to creating the vaccine advance market commitment, which encourages private investment in vaccine research and the supply of vaccines to underdeveloped countries.

In 2000, Kremer and Charles Morcom advised governments to stockpile ivory and get ready should the elephant populations decline significantly. According to Kremer’s widely regarded work “Population Growth and Technological Change: One Million B.C. to 1990,” economic change has occurred throughout the last million years. He learned that as the population grew, so did the economy.

In 2010, speaker Michael Kremer became USAID’s Scientific Director of Development Innovation Ventures.

During Growth Week 2010, Kremer conducted a panel discussion on education system reform. In 2021, the G20 appointed Michael Kremer to the High Level Independent Panel on funding the global commons to be prepared to respond to the pandemic. Together, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Lawrence Summers, and Tharman Shanmugaratnam all co-chaired the HLIP.