The Journey of Humanity: A Conversation with Oded Galor

In the framework of Sciences Po's Rendez-vous de la Recherche, a discussion around the book “The Journey of Humanity: The Origins of Wealth and Inequality”, with author Oded Galor, Herbert H. Goldberger Professor of Economics at Brown University and the founding thinker behind “Unified Growth Theory”, which seeks to uncover the fundamental causes of development, prosperity and inequality over the entire span of human history.

Discussant: Benjamin Marx, Assistant Professor of Economics at Sciences Po.

The conference will be followed by a cocktail. 

About the book (published in 30 languages):

In a captivating journey from the dawn of human existence to the present, world-renowned economist and thinker Oded Galor offers an intriguing solution to two of humanity’s great mysteries. Why are humans the only species to have escaped - only very recently - the subsistence trap, allowing us to enjoy a standard of living that vastly exceeds all others? And why have we progressed so unequally around the world, resulting in the great disparities between nations that exist today?

Immense in scope and packed with astounding connections, Galor's gripping narrative explains how technology, population size, and adaptation led to a stunning “phase change” in the human story a mere two hundred years ago. But by tracing that same journey back in time and peeling away the layers of influence - colonialism, political institutions, societal structure, culture - he arrives also at an explanation of inequality's ultimate causes: those ancestral populations that enjoyed fruitful geographical characteristics and rich diversity were set on the path to prosperity, while those that lacked it were disadvantaged in ways still echoed today.

As we face ecological crisis across the globe, The Journey of Humanity is a book of urgent truths and enduring relevance, with lessons that are both hopeful and profound: gender equality, investment in education, and balancing diversity with social cohesion are the keys not only to our species’ thriving, but to its survival.

About the Author:

Oded Galor is the founder of Unified Growth Theory. He has contributed to the understanding of the process of development over the entire course of human history and the role of deep-rooted factors in the transition from stagnation to growth and in the emergence of the vast inequality across the globe. Moreover, he has pioneered the exploration of the impact of evolutionary processes, population diversity, and inequality on the process of development over most of human existence. His research has redirected research in the field of economic growth to the exploration of the long shadow of history and to the role of biogeographical forces in comparative economic development. It has spawned the influential literatures studying the impact of inequality on the process of development, the interaction between human adaptation and economic development, the transition from stagnation to growth, and the impact of human diversity on comparative economic development. 

Oded Galor was awarded Doctorate Honoris Causa from UC Louvain and from Poznan University of Economics & Business. He is an elected Foreign Member of Academia Europaea and an Elected Fellow of the Econometric Society. He has been a co-director of the NBER research group on Income Distribution and Macroeconomics, a Research Fellow of CEPR, GLO, and IZA, a Research Associate of the NBER and CESifo, a Sackler Fellow at Tel-Aviv University, and a Fellow of the Hebrew University.  Furthermore, he is the Editor in Chief of the Journal of Economic Growth, Editor of the Journal of Population Economics, and Co-Editor of Macroeconomic Dynamics.

This event is jointly hosted with the INSEAD James M. and Cathleen D. Stone Centre for the Study of Wealth Inequality.