Hoover Institution Conference Examines the Paths and Pitfalls on the Road to Economic Development

The Path Towards Prosperity conference, held at the Hoover Institution on March 28–29, 2024, examined institutions that play a critical role in economic development.

Stephen Haber, Peter and Helen Bing Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and cochair of the conference, presents a history of Liberia and Australia, comparing the formation of their political and economic institutions.

Left to right: Hoover senior fellows Paola Sapienza and Valerie Ramey discuss the presentations with Helena Miton (Stanford Graduate School of Business) and Alexander Lee (University of Rochester).

Left to right: Amit Seru, Hoover senior fellow and cochair of the conference, Vikrant Vig (Stanford Graduate School of Business), and Hoover senior fellow Ross Levine discuss the impact of securities ratings on financial markets.

Hoover senior fellow Ross Levine comments on the paper “The Value of Ratings: Evidence from Their Introduction in Securities Markets” by Carola Frydman (Northwestern University).

Hoover senior fellow Valerie Ramey discusses a paper presented at the conference.

Hoover senior fellow and Nobel laureate Thomas J. Sargent (right) discusses his research on US fiscal policy with Hanno Lustig and Vikrant Vig of the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Stanford professor of biology Deborah Gordon elucidates how collective behavior in ant communities can inform human societies’ efforts to adapt to changing environments.