Antara Haldar
Antara Haldar is a Professor at the University of Cambridge and Visiting Faculty at Harvard University. She has previously held positions at Stanford University, Columbia University, and the European University Institute, and some of the world’s most prestigious Fellowships including at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS).
Antara’s a rare voice who brings together rigorous scholarship and powerful storytelling. Known for her boldness, originality, and intellectual range, she translates complex global challenges —economics, technology, climate, and democracy—into compelling narratives that are as entertaining as they are illuminating. Blending insight with wit, drama, lyricism and a striking sense of imagination, her talks, by finding the human story, don’t just inform audiences—they move them.
She is a highly sought-after speaker on the world stage, having addressed audiences at institutions such as Google DeepMind, the United Nations, the Cambridge Union and the Plenary of the European Financial Congress, where she was in conversation with Nobel-laureate and former President Lech Wałęsa. She has also spoken at the Asian Leadership Conference in Seoul, delivered keynotes at universities, think tanks, chambers of commerce and to governments, and appeared alongside leading global thinkers including Anne-Marie Slaughter, Joseph Stiglitz, and Nicholas Stern.
Her work has been featured across major global media, including Germany’s DW, Japan’s NHK, Al Jazeera and Yahoo Finance. She is a widely published writer, with viral essays, op-eds and commentaries appearing in The Atlantic, WIRED, The Times Literary Supplement, The Independent, El País, and The Globe & Mail. Her popular monthly column for Project Syndicate has appeared in 150 countries. Her ideas have been covered by the Financial Times, NPR, the Los Angeles Times, Le Monde, and other leading outlets, and she was named a “Thinker of the Year” by Colombia’s El Espectador. Her research has been supported by major global funders including the European Research Council, UKRI, the Templeton Foundation and the Mozilla Foundation. Her research has informed institutions such as the World Bank and the White House, and she has served as a consultant to the United Nations, the World Justice Project, the Law Society of Scotland and a slew of other organizations.
Her forthcoming book, EVERYMAN, will be published by Simon & Schuster in the United States and Penguin Random House in the United Kingdom in September 2026, with over a dozen international editions to follow.
Topics
Narrative Economics: The Stories That Shape Markets, Power, and the Future
When economies rise or fall, we reach instinctively for models, metrics, and forecasts. But beneath the numbers lies something more powerful: the stories we tell. In this talk, Antara Haldar reframes economics not as a system ofincentives alone, but as a living narrative shaped by myths, metaphors, and moral imagination. Drawing on cutting-edge research across behavioral economics, moral psychology, sociology, philosophy,and evolutionary biology—as well as insights from her forthcoming book EVERYMAN—she reveals how dominant economic stories quietly govern behavior, policy, and even what we believe is possible. From the “rational actor” to the “American Dream” to AI as a modern Frankenstein, these narratives do more than describe reality—they produce it. Nowhere is this clearer than infinance, where markets run as much on belief as on fundamentals: one part calculation, one part collective story. By learning to recognize, interrogate, and ultimately rewrite these narratives, leaders can unlock new forms of value, build more resilient institutions, and reimagine capitalism for a world that urgently demands it. Stories are not the ornament of economics—they are its engine. Change the story, and you change the future.
The Future of Economics: Rethinking Value in an Age of Crisis and Possibility
At a moment when the old economic playbook no longer seems to fit—from climate breakdown to rising inequality, the threat of nuclear war to misaligned AI—we are forced to ask a deeper question: what is economics actually for? In this talk, Antara Haldar offers a bold reimagining of thediscipline that forms the organizing logic of every aspect of society, moving beyond narrow models of efficiency and growth toward a richer vision grounded in human flourishing, social cohesion, and planetary limits, showing how a moment of crisis can be turned into one of opportunity. Shattering disciplinary silos to draw on insights from behavioral science, history, sociology, psychology and moral philosophy, she explores how the next generation of economics must evolve—reshaping how we define value, design institutions, and measure success. The result is a compelling roadmap for leaders seeking not just to navigate disruption and stay relevant, but to help build a more just, resilient, and imaginative economic future.
The Future of Europe: Reinventing a Fragile Dream in a Fractured World
Europe has long stood as one ofthe most ambitious political and economic experiments in history—a project that transformed centuries of conflict into an unprecedented era of cooperation. But today, that project is under strain, tested by geopolitical upheaval, economic strains, migration pressures, and the resurgence of nationalism. In this talk, Antara Haldar examines how Europe can renew itself in the face of these challenges. Drawing on history, political economy, and her work on narrative and institutions, she explores how Europe’s future will depend not just on policy fixes, but on rediscovering a shared story powerful enough to bind its nations together, and act as a model for the rest of the world. The result is a provocative and hopeful vision of how Europe might once again lead—not by power alone, but by example—in shaping a more cooperative and humane global order.
Institutional Economics: Now or Never—Rebuilding the Rules That Shape Our World
When economies falter, the instinct is to tweak incentives, adjust policies, or fine-tune markets. But what if the deeper problem lies not in the players, but in the rules of the game itself? In this talk, Antara Haldar argues that we are at a decisive turning point: the institutions that once underpinned prosperity—from markets and states to social norms and global governance—are no longer fit for purpose in a rapidly changing world. Drawing on the tradition of institutional economics and her own interdisciplinary work, she reveals how institutions quietly structure behavior, distribute power, and shape what societies are able to imagine and achieve. Through compelling examples of both institutional failure and innovation, she shows why incremental reform is no longer enough—and why this is a “now or never” moment to redesign the frameworks that govern our lives. The result is a powerful call to action for leaders to move beyond short-term fixes and take seriously the task of building institutions that are more adaptive, inclusive, and capable of meeting the challenges of the twenty-first century.
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