Second Frankfurt Leadership Lecture: Identity Economics

Abstract

The "homo economicus" of classic economic analysis looks nothing like real people, who have names, families, and communities and who describe themselves and others in terms of gender, class, religion, nation, and workplace. Identity Economics provides a framework to capture such social categories and the related norms for how people think they should behave and interact. This framework allows for a fuller analysis of economic behavior and outcomes, including leadership in organizations and social inequality. 

The speaker

Rachel Kranton is James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of Economics at Duke University and studies how institutions and the social setting affect economic outcomes.  She develops theories of networks and has introduced identity into economic thinking.  Her research contributes to many fields including microeconomics, economic development, and industrial organization.

Rachel Kranton is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a fellow of the Econometric Society, a fellow of the Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory, and was awarded a Chaire Blaise Pascal. She will serve as the Vice President of the American Economic Association (AEA) for 2026–27 and previously served on the AEA Executive Committee, and on the Editorial Boards of the American Economic Review and the Journal of Economic Literature. She was also a Managing Editor of the Economic Journal. She is launching, along with collaborators, a new research network, Economic Research on Identity, Norms, and Narratives (ERINN). Rachel Kranton earned her Ph.D. in Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1993.  She has held fellowships at the Russell Sage Foundation in New York and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. She joined Duke University’s faculty in 2007 and served as Dean of Social Sciences in Duke’s Trinity College of Arts & Sciences from 2018-2022.

Date: Tuesday, 10 November 2026

Venue: Room 1G192 PEG Building, Campus Westend, Goethe University Frankfurt 

Time: 6:15–7:45 p.m. 

Participation is free, and the talk will be followed by a reception. For planning purposes, please confirm your participation with Gordon Adami at contact@goethe-leadership.org