Inaugural Imberman Lecture to Feature Nobel Laureate Joel Mokyr

The conversation will explore how the market for ideas has been crucial for economic development.

By Sarah Steimer

The inaugural Imberman Lecture is set to probe the intersection of economics and history, taking a close look at the nature of markets and their relationship to ideas. Joel Mokyr, an American and Israeli economic historian and winner of the 2025 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, will be the first guest lecturer in this new series, to be held April 13 at UChicago’s Breasted Hall.

“Mokyr is a very prolific and prominent scholar,” says Steven Pincus, the Thomas E. Donnelly Professor of British History and the College. “From the perspective of the field in general, his biggest contribution has been to meld a sophisticated economic history onto an equally sophisticated intellectual history.”

Mokyr, the Robert H. Strotz Professor of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern University, has been a leading figure in economic history in the greater Chicago area, joining Northwestern in 1974 and drawing renowned scholars to the region for seminars and workshops. An internationally recognized thought leader himself, Mokyr helped “establish and perpetuate economic history as a vibrant field,” Pincus says.

Mokyr’s work focuses on economic history prior to 1989, using historical sources to determine the causes of sustained economic growth. His work has shown the need for scientific explanations for why innovations work if they are to succeed one another in a self-generating process. He was recognized by the Nobel Prize committee “for having identified the prerequisites for sustained growth through technological progress.” And among his many accomplishments are his books, which include Industrial Growth and Stagnation in the Low Countries, 1800–1850; The Enlightened Economy: An Economic History of Britain, 1700-1850; and Culture of Growth: The Origins of the Modern Economy. 

For this lecture, “The Market for Ideas, Then and Now,” Mokyr will discuss how the emergence of a market for ideas — or the competition of ideas in free, transparent public discourse — has been crucial for the production of useful knowledge and the economic development of the western world. He’ll also explore the history of the supply of ideas and the demand for ideas, from the emergence of the Republic of Letters in the fifteenth century, through the Industrial Revolution, and up to today. The lecture will make an effort to establish the technical parameters of this particular type of market.

The lecture will also tie into the Institutions for Prosperity and Liberty Initiative, as Mokyr’s work considers the relationship between institutions and history, economics, politics, and philosophy. The “market for ideas” concept that Mokyr explores, for example, is often understood as an institution.

This lecture, a program by the Department of History, was made possible by a gift made in memory of Eli Woodruff Imberman (AM '65 / PhD '73 History), whose love of history and scholarship, his family says, found its home at the University of Chicago. 

“Woody believed that the present could only be understood through the deeper currents of history,” his son Lane Imberman says. “There is perhaps no one better than Nobel Laureate Joel Mokyr to help us see our current moment through that same lens.”

Individuals within the university and throughout the Chicago community are encouraged to attend the lecture, which — considering concerns over affordability and inflation — is likely to be of great interest to many.

“Joel is an absolutely brilliant lecturer,” Pincus says. “He is such an engaging and, to be honest, hilariously funny presenter, somebody whose presentations make his extremely sophisticated scholarship accessible to the most general of audiences.”

The Imberman Lecture is free and open to all. Registration is available here