The Rafael del Pino Foundation, as part of its Master Lecture Programme, hosted Professor Robert M. Solow on 4 February 2009. The title of his lecture was: "Policies to cope with the recession". It was attended by more than 450 people.
Robert M. Solow received his PhD from Harvard University with honours and, after a brief teaching experience at Columbia University, he joined the Department of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he pursued his teaching and research career until his retirement in 1995, although he continues to be associated with MIT as Professor Emeritus.
Professor Solow was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1987 "for his contributions in the field of economic growth theory". A disciple of Wassily Leontief, Professor Solow has carried out an intense research activity. In 1956 he published his famous article entitled "A contribution to the theory of economic growth" in which he set out his best known contribution: a neoclassical model of growth considered the orthodox response to the Keynesian Harrod-Domar model. This work, together with other relevant contributions in the field of economic growth, would end up consecrating him as one of the most significant economists of the so-called neoclassical revolution.
In addition, Professor Solow served on the Council of Economic Advisors to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson and on the Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, among other public bodies.
Currently, Robert M. Solow's main research activity is at the Russell Sage Foundation and the Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation, of which he is founder and director, and he collaborates with numerous institutions such as the Mackinsey Global Institute, etc.
Robert M. Solow is a past President of the Econometric Society and the American Economic Association and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has received numerous honours throughout his long career and has been awarded honorary doctorates from the universities of Chicago, Lehigh, Brown, Wesleyan, Paris, Warwick, Yale and Pompeu Fabra.