Industrialized nations were faced with severe economic and political crises long before COVID-19 struck and these crises have only deepened during the pandemic.

Daron Acemoglu of MIT joined Erik Brynjolfsson for “Remaking the Post-COVID World,” our final lunch seminar of the spring 2021 semester. Acemoglu talked about how the root of many of these crises is the direction of technological change, which has progressed towards a system of more automation and increased inequality between capital and labor and between high- and low-education workers. Acemoglu argues that remaking the post-COVID world will require a complete overhaul of our institutions.