Honour for outstanding economist

Professor Smita Srinivas has been honoured by the Association for Evolutionary Economics (AFEE) for her outstanding work in the area of institutional economics.

She has been selected as the AFEE’s 2021 Clarence E. Ayres Scholar, an award named after the noted Texas economist and philosopher associated with the institutional perspective in economics that the AEE seeks to advance.

Several eminent economists have been recognised by the Ayres award since 2013. 

Professor Srinivas is Professorial Research Fellow (Economics, Development) in the School of Social Sciences and Global Studies at The Open University, and a member of the OU’s Innovation Knowledge Development (IKD) grouping.

She is both a distinguished academic and an advisor to a wide range of organisations in the public, private and third sector.

Her work is in economics and public policy with a strong international development focus, and she has extensive advisory experience in economic development, technological learning, innovation and industrial policy.

Professor Srinivas is currently the India Principal Investigator on an OU-led four-country study which aims to link innovation in industrial and health sectors to improve access to cancer care in East Africa. 

She is founder and Director of the Technological Change Lab, which focuses on connecting economic theory to actual developmental practice in many different continents and contexts. 

In 2015 she received the Myrdal Prize for theoretical contributions in evolutionary political economy with her book Market Menagerie: Health and Development in Late Industrial States. 

She has held senior academic and leadership appointments in global universities and research and policy centres, including full-time, Visiting, or Honorary positions at Columbia University, Harvard University, University College London, the LSE, the Indian Institute of Science and currently with the National Centre for Biological Sciences in Bangalore.

Professor Srinivas will be invited to present her work at the AFEE meeting at the American Economic Association conference in Chicago in January 2021.