“To play soccer like Lionel Messi, you must have a natural ability, but you also need to be identified at an early age and you need good training,” says the economist Ruchir Agarwal.
The same happens with brilliant minds in areas like mathematics and science. “We don't want the invisible geniuses to be lost,” explains Agarwal, co-founder of the nonprofit organization Global Talent Fund (GTF) in the United States and researcher at Columbia University.
One of the missions that he and his team have set for themselves is to find those brilliant teenagers and help them develop their potential.
The “economics of talent” is about that, he explains, a new branch within economics that focuses on innovation and economic growth in countries through the discovery of brilliant minds among school-age children.
Although it may seem like a very specific objective for what he refers to as a subfield of study that is just now being created, some researchers have already begun to join this economic approach.
With that idea in mind, a group of experts met in November in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, at the first international forum on the economics of talent, with support from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), a nonprofit organization based in the United States.
Among the organizers was Agarwal, an economist who spent a significant part of his career at the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
In fact, the IMF dedicated an entire issue of its publication Finance & Development to the economics of talent, described as an emerging field that could be a game changer in the development of countries.
Precisely because it is a developing field, there are still no results that demonstrate the scientific contribution and effectiveness of the initiatives that use this approach.
What does exist, at least so far, are small-scale initiatives like those being developed by the Global Talent Fund.
Agarwal and other economists wondered how to connect exceptional teenagers with major academic opportunities.
That’s how they arrived at the idea of creating the organization in 2023 with philanthropic donations from corporate donors. The fund co-finances scholarships with UK universities such as the University of Cambridge and of Oxford.
One of its most emblematic programs is called BIG, through which they support and award scholarships to teenagers who earned medals in the International Mathematical Olympiad to study at some of the world’s top universities.
One of the challenges the organization has faced, says Agarwal, is identifying exceptional students at an early age, and although until now they have only looked for talent among medalists in math and science competitions—regardless of their country of origin—they are currently exploring other pathways to identify exceptional minds.
Financial limitations are the main obstacle preventing Olympiad medalists, especially those from middle- and low-income countries, from accessing the top universities.
That’s why they decided to move the program forward. But in addition to academic criteria, they also consider other aspects such as a collaborative spirit, leadership qualities, and an aspiration to contribute to society.
“We're looking for the new Albert Einstein or Marie Curie,” says the economist.
Recently, they sent the first group of students who had just graduated from high school to study abroad with the support of the organization.
Among them is the Brazilian Bilhana Kochloukova.
The passion for mathematics
Newly adjusting to her life at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, Bilhana Kochloukova is immersed in a world completely different from her hometown of Campinas, in the state of São Paulo.
After winning bronze medals at the European Women's Mathematical Olympiad (EGMO) in 2023 and 2024, she set out for an unfamiliar country on a personal and academic journey, at just 18 years old.
“It's not just a bunch of formulas,” she says of math. “When you understand where it comes from and study it more deeply, it becomes very attractive, and everything makes sense.”
In addition to studying, she is training with the university’s women’s football team, another one of her great passions, to which she dedicated a significant part of her time in Brazil.
Another Latin American who is passionate about solving difficult challenges is Manuel Cabrera, a Salvadoran who has been studying mathematics for a year at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.
“Math is everywhere,” he explains, like when you have to find the shortest path to get from one place to another, a challenge solved by the algorithm used by Google Maps.
“When you see an algorithm like that, you realize that the person who created it had a brilliant idea that has been useful to everyone else.”
"I like developing strategies, using analytical thinking to solve a problem with creative ideas," he says. And that ability to solve problems is what has historically driven innovation worldwide.
If a young person with the potential to advance nuclear fusion or design cutting-edge treatments never finds the right mentors, networks, funding, and everything else needed to thrive, the entire world loses out, Agarwal explains.
This situation is even more critical in countries with fewer economic resources.
In fact, nearly 90% of the world’s young people live in developing economies, but those born in the US, Europe, and Japan win the overwhelming majority of Nobel Prizes in Chemistry, Physics, and Biology.
And at the international level, there are few programs focused on high-school students.
In addition to the Global Talent Fund, some universities, such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US, also offer full scholarships to Olympiad medalists and international students.
But much more is needed. Agarwal hopes these initiatives will continue to be replicated and expanded to other countries, giving more opportunities to exceptional teenagers.
The debate over lone geniuses
Not all economists agree that investing too much effort in developing exceptional young people is a way to foster a country’s innovation.
It’s not that they think it’s a bad idea. The problem, they say, is that promoting the image of the child genius reinforces the notion that solutions to innovation challenges depend more on individual effort than on a country’s social structure and economic model.
Mariana Mazzucato, founder and director of the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP) at University College London, has said that the main driver of innovation is not lone geniuses but state investment.
“Innovation is the result of a massive collective effort,” the economist has pointed out.
The usual response to this argument is that both approaches are possible: supporting geniuses and, at the same time, backing state efforts.
But the debate intensifies when resources are scarce and funds are insufficient to support both.
Another issue that sparks debate in developing countries is that many brilliant students who receive scholarships to attend the world’s top universities do not return to their home countries.
And if they do return, when they face the reality that there are no funds for innovative research or attractive job offers, they head back abroad.
That has made brain drain a very difficult problem for home countries to solve.
Even so, in a globalized economy, one premise that has gained traction in scientific communities is the importance of facilitating the free flow of brilliant minds, especially those who can be identified at school age and who, with a good push, may go on to develop their full potential.
