Inauguration Ceremony Academic Year 2020-2021

ONLINE EVENT

Welcome Addresses

Stefano Geuna, Rector Università di Torino

Francesco Profumo, President Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo

Giorgio Barba Navaretti, President Fondazione Collegio Carlo Alberto, Università di Milano

Introduction

Aldo Geuna, Fondazione Collegio Carlo Alberto, Università di Torino

Inaugural Lecture

Joel Mokyr, Northwestern University

“Attitudes, Aptitudes, and the Emergence of the Modern Economy”

Abstract
Europe’s exceptional economic performance after the Industrial Revolution has been dubbed “the Great Divergence” and the “Great Enrichment.” Its causes have been long in dispute. The Industrial Revolution came after three centuries of slow but powerful cultural change during which certain European elites became increasingly willing and capable of producing economic and technological progress overcoming a multitude of obstacles and forms of resistance. These cultural developments can be summarized as “attitudes” and “aptitudes”.

Joel Mokyr is the Robert H. Strotz Professor of Arts and Sciences and Professor of Economics and History at Northwestern University. He is the author of ten books, many of which won major prizes. His most recent book is A Culture of Growth, published by Princeton University Press in 2016.