Muhammed A. Yildirim

Muhammed A. Yildirim serves as the Director of Academic Research at the Harvard Growth Lab and an Associate Professor of Economics at Koç University. He earned his Ph.D. from Harvard University and a BS degree from the California Institute of Technology. Prior to joining the faculty at Koç University, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for International Development at Harvard University.

His research primarily focuses on understanding network and spillover effects across various research domains, including industrial policy, international trade, productivity, economic growth, and matching. His work has been published in prestigious economic journals, including Science, Nature, Cell, Nature Communications, Nature Biotechnology, Nature Methods, Economic Policy, Journal of International Economics, Journal of Economic Theory, Theoretical Economics, and Research Policy. Furthermore, he is a co-author of “The Atlas of Economic Complexity,” published by the MIT Press.

Dr. Yildirim’s research has garnered significant attention from global media outlets, including the New York Times, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, BBC, CNN, and the New Yorker magazine. In recognition of his contributions, Dr. Yildirim received the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship in 2015, the Young Scientist Award (BAGEP) from the Science Academy in Turkey in 2021, and Koç University’s College of Administrative Sciences and Economics Outstanding Faculty Award in 2021.