Max Roser Keynote Speaker

Max Roser is studying the long-term evolution of living standards around the world. He publishes his work in two ways: through open-access web publications and through academic journals.

In 2011 he started his web publication OurWorldInData.org. On this site he is telling the social, economic, and environmental history of our world up to the present day. The publication is presenting empirical research and interactive data visualisations based on a wide rage of academic sources and disciplines. It is a long-term project that he is continuously working on. Another web publication focuses on economic inequality: For the Chartbook of Economic Inequality he has visualised how inequality has changed over the last 100 years in 30 countries.

Max’s research is concerned with inclusive and sustainable growth. Together with the researchers from the Employment, Equity, and Growth Programme, he created a data set of average incomes in different percentiles across the income distribution. With these data it is now possible to study both the distribution of incomes and the growth of incomes at the same time.

Together with Felix Pretis, he investigated whether the world is on track to achieve economic prosperity in an environmentally sustainable fashion. They assessed the global socio-economic scenarios underlying the IPCC reports on climate change by comparing them with the recent observational record.

He has a BSc in geoscience, a BA and an MA in philosophy, an MSc in economics, and a doctorate from the University of Innsbruck, Austria.

He has done consultancy work for institutions such as the World Bank and the Global Fund. His work has been covered in media outlets including The New York Times, The Financial Times, Business Insider, TIME Magazine, The Washington Post, Forbes, Slate, Vox, The Guardian, Rue 89, La Presse (French), and Süddeutsche Zeitung (German).