The Princess of Asturias Foundation

Turkish economist Dani Rodrik has been bestowed with the 2020 Princess of Asturias Award for Social Sciences, as announced today by the Jury responsible for conferring said Award.

The Jury for the Award –convened by the Princess of Asturias Foundation– was chaired by Carmen Iglesias Cano, Countess of Gisbert, and composed of Juan Barja de Quiroga Losada, Adela Cortina Orts, Juan Pablo Fusi Aizpurúa, Mauro Guillén Rodríguez, Silvia Iranzo Gutiérrez, Emilio Lamo de Espinosa Michels de Champourcin, Óscar Loureda Lamas, Manuel Menéndez Menéndez, Enrique Moradiellos García, Montserrat Moreno Marimón, Emilio Ontiveros Baeza, Jaime Pérez Renovales, Rafael Puyol Antolín, Isaac Querub Caro, Myriam Seco Álvarez and Marta Elvira Rojo (as acting secretary).

This candidature was put forward by Alejandro Portes, 2019 Princess of Asturias Laureate for Social Sciences.

Due to the health emergency caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the meeting was held online via video conference.

Born in Istanbul (Turkey) on 14th August 1957, Dani Rodrik obtained his Bachelor of Arts in 1979 from Harvard University and, two years later, a Master’s degree in Public Administration from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, where he earned his PhD in Economics in 1985. He has been an assistant and associate professor of Public Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, professor of Economics and International Affairs at Columbia University, Rafiq Hariri Professor of International Political Economy, also at Harvard, and Albert O. Hirschman Professor of Economics at the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study, School of Social Science. He currently holds the Ford Foundation Chair in International Political Economy at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Considered one of the world’s leading experts in political economy, throughout his career he has published more than twenty books, monographs and numerous articles on economic growth and analysis, development and politics, as well as having lectured at prestigious universities and institutions worldwide. In his book The Globalization Paradox: Democracy and the Future of the World Economy (2011), he formulated one of his most popular theses: the trilemma of international politics. According to this thesis, it is not possible for a country to combine its integration into the global economy, democracy and state sovereignty at the same time; given the situation of the system, it must renounce one of the three options. Since its formulation, the trilemma has become one of the most referenced ideas in the international debate on economic theory. He has focused part of his work on cooperation as co-director of Economics for Inclusive Prosperity (EfIP), a network of economists committed to achieving a fairer financial system and a more equitable society. He also forms part of the Bureau for Research in Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD), a non-governmental organization that provides economic education in developing areas. He is co-editor of the Journal of Globalization and Development and sits on the editorial board of the journal Studies in Comparative International Development and the advisory board of the Review of Economics and Statistics, published by Harvard University, in addition to being a member of the editorial board of the academic journal Global Policy, published by Durham University. He is also a member of the executive committee of Harvard’s Weatherhead for International Affairs.

Rodrik is an emeritus member of the European Economic Association, an honorary member of the Economic Association of Latin America and the Caribbean and president-elect of the International Economic Association. He is a fellow of the United States National Bureau of Economic Research and a member of the Centre for Economic Policy Research, London, the South African Presidential Economic Advisory Council, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Turkish Academy of Science and the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, in addition to holding many other positions and memberships. Holder of honorary doctorates from the Universities of Antwerp, Groningen, Southern Denmark, York and Lyon, as well as from the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru and the Erasmus University, Rotterdam, Rodrik has received the Leontief Prize from the Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University (2002), the Albert O. Hirschman Prize from the Research Council in Social Sciences (USA, 2007), the John Fayerweather Eminent Scholar Award from the Academy of International Business (USA, 2017), the John von Neumann Award from the Rajk László College of Advanced Studies, Budapest (2018) and the George S. Eccles Prize for Excellence in Economic Writing from the Columbia Business School (2019), among others.

As stated in the Regulations, the Princess of Asturias Awards are aimed at rewarding “the scientific, technical, cultural, social and humanitarian work carried out at an international level by individuals, institutions or groups of individuals or institutions”. In keeping with these principles, the Princess of Asturias Award for Social Sciences shall be aimed at recognizing “creative and/or research work in the field of history, law, linguistics, teaching, political science, psychology, sociology, ethics, philosophy, geography, economics, demography or anthropology, as well as in the disciplines corresponding to each of these fields.” This year, a total of 33 candidatures from 14 different countries were put forward for the award.

This is the fourth of eight Princess of Asturias Awards, which are being bestowed this year for the fortieth time. The Princess of Asturias Awards for Concord went to Spanish health workers on the front line against COVID-19, the Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts went to composers Ennio Morricone and John Williams and the Princess of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities was jointly granted to the Guadalajara International Book Fair and the Hay Festival of Literature & Arts. The rest of awards will be announced in the coming days in the following order: Sports, Literature, Technical and Scientific Research and International Cooperation.

Each of the Princess of Asturias Awards comprises a Joan Miró sculpture representing and symbolizing the Awards, a cash prize of 50,000 euros, a diploma and an insignia.

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