Release: Political Economist Nicholas Eberstadt to Receive the 2020 AEI Irving Kristol Award

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Washington, DC (August 25, 2020) — American Enterprise Institute (AEI) President Robert Doar announced today that Nicholas Eberstadt, AEI’s Henry Wendt Chair in Political Economy, will receive the Irving Kristol Award, the highest honor bestowed by AEI, on Wednesday, October 14, 2020, in Washington, DC.

“The depth and breadth of Nick’s work is unmatched,” said Robert Doar. “In every way, Nick embodies AEI’s mission of building a freer and safer world and expanding human potential. Even a cursory survey of Nick’s scholarship over his tenure finds numerous standouts: ‘The End of North Korea,’ published in 1999, established Nick’s work as must-read to understand the methodical menace posed by the Kim dynasty. His 2008 book ‘The Poverty of the Poverty Rate’ revealed the inadequacy of America’s poverty measuring tools, and his 2016 study ‘Men Without Work’ was the first to illuminate the growing postwar crisis of worklessness for American men.”

A Harvard-trained political economist, Dr. Eberstadt is among AEI’s longest-serving scholars, joining the Institute in 1985. He is also a senior adviser to the National Bureau of Asian Research. A founding board member of the US Committee on Human Rights in North Korea, he has served on the Board of Scientific Counselors for the National Center for Health Statistics at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Global Agenda Council at the World Economic Forum (Davos), and the President’s Council on Bioethics.

Dr. Eberstadt has advised numerous governmental and international organizations and has been invited to present expert testimony before Congress on a wide range of topics. In 2012, he was awarded the prestigious Bradley Prize by the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation.

Said Nicholas Eberstadt, “This honor is an especially sweet one for me, not only because it comes from my AEI family — my intellectual haven these many years — but because of my immense admiration for Irving Kristol, whom I was so privileged to know and learn from.”

AEI’s Irving Kristol Award is given annually to individuals who have made exceptional practical and intellectual contributions to improve government policy, social welfare, or political understanding. Established in 2002 in honor of AEI Senior Fellow Irving Kristol, the accolade replaced the Francis Boyer Award, which had been given for the previous 25 years. Previous recipients include Gerald Ford, Arthur F. Burns, Henry Kissinger, Ronald Reagan, Antonin Scalia, Dick Cheney, Alan Greenspan, Paul Ryan, Boris Johnson, and Nikki Haley.

This event is by invitation only. For additional information regarding the Irving Kristol Award or other media inquiries, please contact AEI Media Services at [email protected] or 202.862.5829.

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