Stanford Engineering Hero Lecture: Kenneth Arrow

In this lecture, Nobel Prize-winning economist Kenneth Arrow will speak about the interactions and differences between the fields of microeconomics -- which looks at the behavior of individual people and companies within the economy -- and operations research, which applies advanced analytical methods to help make better decisions. Arrow got his start in operations research and was one of the first economists to note the existence of a learning curve. In 1972, together with Sir John Hicks, he won the Nobel Prize in economics for his pioneering contributions to general equilibrium theory and welfare theory. He has received the American Economic Association's John Bates Clark Medal, and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine. He is a professor emeritus in what is now the department of Management Science and Engineering and the Joan Kenney Professor of Economics.