Michael Spence served as the Chairman of the Independent Commission on Growth in Developing Countries (2006–2010—the life of the commission), Philip H. Knight Professor Emeritus of Management and former Dean of the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University, Professor of Economics in the Stern School of Business at New York University and a Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford.
Spence received the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, in 2001, and the John Bates Clark Medal in 1982.
He is the author, The Next Convergence: The Future of Economic Growth in a Multispeed World, (Ferrar, Straus and Giroux, May 2011) and Globalization and Unemployment: The Downside of Integrating Markets (Foreign Affairs, July/August 2011.)
Spence is an advisor to the governments of China and India on matters relating to growth, development and structural change. He is a senior advisor at Oak Hill Investment Management, a consultant to PIMCO, and serves on the board of the Stanford Management Company. He serves on the boards of a number of public and private companies.