A. Michael Spence is a Nobel Prize–winning economist and Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, where he is also Philip H. Knight Professor Emeritus of Management. He is widely recognised for his contributions to the economics of information, particularly the analysis of markets with asymmetric information, for which he received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2001.

Spence has held senior academic leadership roles at both Stanford and Harvard. He served as Dean of the Stanford Graduate School of Business (1990–1999) and earlier as Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University (1984–1990). His academic career also includes professorships at Harvard and Stanford, following a PhD in economics from Harvard University.

His research and policy work focus on economic growth, development, globalisation, labour markets, and the impact of technology on economic transformation. He chaired the independent Commission on Growth and Development (2006–2010), examining pathways to sustainable growth and poverty reduction in developing countries.

Spence is the author of several influential books, including The Next Convergence (2011) and Permacrisis (2023, with co-authors), and has published widely in leading academic journals. He has also served on the boards of major corporations and advisory bodies, bridging academic research and practical economic policy.

He is a recipient of the John Bates Clark Medal and the John Kenneth Galbraith Prize for excellence in teaching, and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Econometric Society.