Events 2014-2015

Sciences Po Conference in honour of Christopher Pissarides

LIEPP (Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire D'Evaluation Des Politiques Publicques) and the Department of Economics will be hosting a conference in honour of Professor Sir Christopher A Pissarides on 30 June and 1 July.

The conference will bring together eminent, international economists, including faculty members of Sciences Po's Department of Economics as well as economists from LSE and the LSE Department of Economics.

For further information please visit the Sciences Po website and the Conference programme webpage.

Understanding Economic Development by Paul Colier and Dani Rodrik

Monday 22 June 2015, 6:30-8:00 pm
Old Theatre, Old Building

Hosted by Sir Arthur Lewis Centenary Event

2015 marks the centenary of the birth of the LSE’s Nobel Prize winning economist, William Arthur Lewis (1915-1991).

Sir Arthur Lewis was awarded the Nobel Prize for economics for “pioneering research into economic development research with particular consideration of the problems of developing countries”.

The LSE is organizing a series of events to mark his centenary. This event will see Rodrik and Collier reflect on some important themes on the subject of “Understanding Economic Development” and their relation to Lewis’s earlier work. 

Find out more about Arthur Lewis's connection to LSE on the LSE History blog. Listen to Professor Stuart Corbridge discussing Arthur Lewis' contribution to development economics at LSE and the world at large. 2015 is LSE’s 120th anniversary. Join in the celebrations at lse.ac.uk/lse120 #LSE120  

Paul Collier (picture copyright: World Economic Forum CC BY-SA 2.0) is a Director of the International Growth Centre (IGC), Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government at Oxford University and Co-Director of the Centre for the Study of African Economies also at Oxford University.

Dani Rodrik (@rodrikdani) is the Albert O. Hirschman Professor in the School of Social Science of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and Centennial Professor at the LSE European Institute and Department of Economics.

He has published widely in international economics and globalization, economic growth and development, and political economy. He is the author of The Globalization Paradox (Norton, 2011) and One Economics, Many Recipes (Princeton, 2007). 

Stuart Corbridge (chair) is Deputy Director and Provost of LSE.

This event is organised in conjunction with the International Growth Centre and STICERD.

Prior to the lecture, a half-day symposium with distinguished economists in the field of development economics is hosted by STICERD and the IGC. Find out more at  STICERD's website.

Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEALewis

Info: Event free and open to all with no ticket or registration required - further information from LSE Events.

Recordings: Audio recording on LSE Media page

When, Why, and What's Next for Low Inflation? No Magic Slippers Needed, by Kristin Forbes

Wednesday 17 June 2015, 6:30-8:00 pm
Sheikh Zayed Theatre, New Academic Building

Hosted by the Department and the Centre for Macroeconomics

Inflation has fallen sharply in most countries around the world—an apparent victory in the long battle for price stability. But in some countries, prices are not just increasing at a slower rate (disinflation), but below target and actually falling (deflation). Assessing the broader cross-country and historical experience is helpful to understand the UK’s experience today. How much of the decline in inflation is caused by short-term and temporary influences - such as low oil and gas prices? How much reflects output gaps, currency movements, and recent wage dynamics—which could also fade over time? Or are there permanent structural changes in the global economy generating a new era of permanently lower inflation? What are the risks of lower inflation? The answers to these questions are critical in assessing the role for the Bank of England and monetary policy around the world during this period of low inflation.

Kristin Forbes is the Jerome and Dorothy Lemelson Professor of Management and Global Economics at MIT’s Sloan School of Management. In 2014 she also became an External Member of the Monetary Policy Committee for the Bank of England. This dual role continues her tradition of using her academic background to inform her role in senior policy positions. From 2003 to 2005 Forbes served as a Member of the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers (where she was the youngest person to ever hold this position). From 2001-2002 she worked in the U.S. Treasury Department as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Quantitative Policy Analysis, Latin American and Caribbean Nations. She also was a Member of the Governor’s Council of Economic Advisers for the State of Massachusetts from 2009-2014. 

Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEecon  

Info: Event free and open to all with no ticket or registration required - further information from LSE Events.

Transcript, Storify overview

The Global Energy and Growth Challenge: Facts and directions for policy, by Michael Greenstone

Thursday 28 May 2015, 6:30-8:00 pm
New Theatre, East Building

Hosted by the Department, the International Growth Centre and the Grantham Institute

Economic growth depends critically on access to reliable energy. However, in much of the world, access to energy remains low and supply is often unreliable. At the same time, the world’s energy choices are leading to levels of pollution that are substantially shortening people’s lives and causing climate change. The energy and growth challenge requires identifying solutions to these problems of access to inexpensive and reliable energy, while limiting environmental damages and guarding against disruptive climate change. Professor Greenstone will explore the key energy trends, especially in developing countries, and outline solutions to the energy and growth challenge that determines the well-being of the billions of people around the planet. 

Michael Greenstone (picture copyright: Ralph Alswang, CC BY-ND 2.0) is a Research Programme Director (Energy) for the International Growth Centre (IGC), the Milton Friedman Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago and the Director of the Energy Policy Institute at Chicago.  

Nicholas Stern (discussant) is the I G Patel Professor of Economics and Government, Chairman of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment and Head of the India Observatory at LSE. 

Robin Burgess (chair) is the Director of the IGC, a Professor of Economics at LSE and Director of the Economic Organisation and Public Policy Programme at LSE.  

Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEGreenstone

Info: Event free and open to all with no ticket or registration required - further information from LSE Events.

Storify overview

Hubris: Why economists failed to predict the crisis and how to avoid the next one, by Meghnad Desai

Wednesday 27 May 2015, 6:30-8:00 pm
Old Theatre, Old Building

Hosted by the Department and the Centre for Macroeconomics

Meghnad Desai discusses his latest book Hubris: Why economists failed to predict the crisis and how to avoid the next one with Stephen King of HSBC and Charles Goodhart from LSE.

Meghnad Desai worked at LSE in the Economics Department from 1965 onwards, and is now Honorary Fellow and Emeritus Professor. He has written over 25 books and 200 articles in refereed journals. He is a Labour Peer and has received the Padma Bhushan from the Government of India.

Stephen King (discussant) is Group Chief Economist at HSBC.  He is also a successful author.  His latest book, When the Money Runs Out, was published by Yale University Press in May 2013 and was selected as a “book of the year” by the Financial Times, The Economist and The Times.  

Charles Goodhart (discussant), a former member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee, is Emeritus Professor at the London School of Economics, and Director of the Financial Regulation Research Programme in the Financial Markets Group. 

Timothy Besley (chair) is School Professor of Economics and Political Science at LSE. He is also a Visiting Professor at the Institute for  International Economic Studies at Stockholm University. From September 2006 to August 2009, he served as an external member of the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee. 

Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEhubris

Info: Event free and open to all with no ticket or registration required - further information from LSE Events.

Recordings: Video recording on YouTube, Recordings on LSE Media page

Storify overview

When to Rob a Bank: A rogue economist's guide to the world, by Stephen J Dubner

Wednesday 27 May 2015, 6:30-8:00 pm
Theatre, Old Building

Hosted by the Department and the Centre for Macroeconomics

When Freakonomics was first published, Steven D Levitt and Stephen J Dubner started a blog—and they’ve kept it up, tallying more than 8,000 blog posts on Freakonomics.com and pulling in 12 million page views per year. The best are now published in When to Rob a Bank. At this event, Stephen Dubner shares the Freakonomic secrets to making economic ideas fresh and entertaining through their blog and podcast (which has been downloaded a freakish 150million times). You’ll discover what people lie about, and why; why it might be time for a sex tax (if not a fat tax); and, yes, when to rob a bank. (Short answer: never; the ROI is terrible.)

Stephen J Dubner is an award-winning writer and radio and TV personality. He has written six books, including the Freakonomics trilogy and is host of Freakonomics Radio.

Tim Harford is a senior columnist for the Financial Times and the presenter of Radio 4’s More or Less and Pop-Up Economics With Tim Harford. His books include The Undercover Economist, The Logic of Life, Adapt and The Undercover Economist Strikes Back.

Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEDubner

Info: Event free and open to all however a ticket is required - further information from LSE Events.

Recordings: Audio recording on LSE Media page

Inequality Matters: Austerity policies, gender and race, by Stephanie Sequino

Thursday 14 May 2015, 6:30-8:00 pm
Old Theatre, Old Building

Hosted by the Department and the LSE Commission on Gender, Inequality and Power

Austerity policies lead to cuts in social spending that have a potentially disproportionately negative effect on women, youth and racial or ethnic minorities.

Stephanie Seguino is Professor of Economics at the University of Vermont and Professorial Research Associate at SOAS. Stephanie Seguino's research explores the impact of globalisation on income distribution and well-being, with a particular emphasis on Asian and Caribbean economies. She has been an advisor or consultant to numerous international organisations including the World Bank, United Nations Development Program, the Asian Development Bank, and US AID, and publishes regularly in a number of economic journals, including World Development, Journal of Development Studies, and Feminist Economics. Professor Seguino has also contributed her services to local and global living wage campaigns.

Saphieh Ashtiany (respondent) is Principal of Ashtiany Associates, visiting Professor at QMUL, Chair of the Equal Rights Trust and a non-Executive Director and Vice-Chair of the Charities Aid Foundation.

Saphieh is an internationally recognised expert on employment and equality law and is ranked in the top tier of UK employment and discrimination lawyers. She currently works on complex consultancy projects for not-for-profit and institutional bodies.  

Diane Negra (respondent) is Professor of Film Studies and Screen Culture and Head of Film Studies at University College Dublin.

 

The co-editor of the journal Television and New Media, she is author, editor or co-editor of nine books including Off-White Hollywood: American Culture and Ethnic Female Stardom (2001), A Feminist Reader in Early Cinema (2002), Interrogating Postfeminism: Gender and the Politics of Popular Culture (2007), What A Girl Wants?: Fantasizing the Reclamation of Self in Postfeminism (2008) and Gendering the Recession: Media and Culture in an Age of Austerity (2014).  A former member of the Board of Directors of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies, she serves on the Board of the Console-ing Passions International Conference on Television, Video, Audio, New Media and Feminism and with institutional partners will host the 2015 event in Dublin.

Alan Manning (chair) is Professor of Economics and Director of the Community Programme at the Centre for Economic  Performance (CEP) at LSE.

The LSE Commission on Gender, Inequality and Power (@LSEGenderTweet) draws on LSE research and external experts to inform public and policy debates on the complex and multidimensional character of inequality and power imbalances between women and men.

Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEtalksGender           

Info: Event free and open to all with no ticket or registration required - further information from LSE Events.

Recordings: Video recording on YouTube, Recordings and slides on LSE Media page

Storify overview

Inequality and Climate Change: Joseph Stiglitz and Nicholas Stern in Conversation

Wednesday 22 April 2015, 7.00-8.30 pm
Proshansky Auditorium, The Graduate Centre, City University of New York

Hosted by the Graduate Centre, City University of New York

On Earth Day 2015, Joseph Stiglitz and Nicholas Stern, two of the world’s leading experts on economics and the environment, will be in conversation about the intersection of climate change and inequality.

Joseph Stiglitz is University Professor at Columbia, where he co-chairs the Committee on Global Thought. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2001.

He is co-founder and co-president of the Initiative for Policy Dialogue (IPD) and co-chair of the High-Level Expert Group on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Stiglitz’s book The Great Divide: Unequal Societies and What We Can Do About Them will be published in April 2015.

Nicholas Stern is I G Patel Chair of Economics and Government at the London School of Economics, where he chairs the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment and the LSE Asia Research Centre, and president of the British Academy.

He succeeded Stiglitz as chief economist of the World Bank in 2000. Stern is a cross-bench, non-party political, member of the House of Lords. His book Why Are We Waiting? The Logic, Urgency and Promise of Tackling Climate Change is forthcoming in May 2015.

The event will be live-streamed, please check The Graduate Centre's pages for the web link and further information.

The video recording of the conversation is now available via the Graduate Centre's YouTube channel.

Human Capital, Inequality and Tax Reform: Recent past and future prospects, by Richard Blundell

Tuesday 10 March 2015, 6:30-8:00 pm
Old Theatre, Old Building

2015 Economica-Coase Lecture

Even before the financial crisis many developed economies were facing growing inequality and struggling to maintain employment and earnings. This lecture will dig deeper into the background to these trends and will examine the evidence on how tax and welfare reform impacts on human capital, inequality and earnings.

It will ask two general questions: What are the key margins where we might expect tax and welfare reform to have most impact on earnings, employment growth and inequality? How has this changed in the light of the great recession?

The talk will consider prospects for the future and the potential for policy reform. 

Professor Sir Richard Blundell CBE FBA is Ricardo Professor at University College London and Research Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies. He is an alumnus of LSE.

Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEBlundell  

Info: Event free and open to all with no ticket or registration required - further information from LSE Events.

Recordings: Video recording on YouTube, Recordings on LSE Media page

Storify overview, Lecture slides

Yes, it is a Curse: Politics and the adverse impact of natural-resource riches, by Francesco Caselli

Wednesday 4 March 2015, 6:30-8:00 pm
Hong Kong Theatre, Clement House

Norman Sosnow Chair Inaugural Lecture

Professor Caselli  will ask whether recent economic research could shed new light on the political and economic impact of natural resource windfalls.

Francesco Caselli is the Norman Sosnow Professor of Economics in LSE’s Department of Economics and Programme Director of the Macro Research Programme at the Centre For Macroeconomics.

Professor Caselli took up the title of Norman Sosnow Chair on 1 June 2012 and this public lectures marks his appointment.

Suggested hashtag for this event for Twitter users: #LSEecon

Info: Event free and open to all with no ticket or registration required - further information from LSE Events.

Recordings: Video recording on YouTube, Recordings on LSE Media page

Law, Economics and the Republic of Beliefs, by Kaushik Basu

Tuesday 3 March 2015, 6:30-8:00 pm
Old Theatre, Old Building

The Amartya Sen Lecture 2015

Kaushik Basu is Senior Vice President and Chief Economist of the World Bank. He is the second World Bank Chief Economist from a developing country. He is on leave from Cornell University where he is Professor of Economics and the C. Marks Professor of International Studies. Prior to this he served as the Chief Economic Advisor to the Government of India at the Ministry of Finance. He was Chairman of the Department of Economics and during 2006-9 he was Director of the Center for Analytic Economics at Cornell. 

Earlier he was Professor of Economics at the Delhi School of Economics, where in 1992 he founded the Centre for Development Economics in Delhi and was its first Executive Director. He is also a founding member of the Madras School of Economics.

Professor Basu has held visiting positions at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, and the London School of Economics, where he was a Distinguished Visitor in 1993. He has been a Visiting Professor at Harvard University, Princeton University and MIT and holds a PhD in economics from the London School of Economics.

He is currently the President of the Human Development and Capabilities Association, which was founded by Amartya Sen. He has held advisory posts with the ILO, the World Bank, the Reserve Bank of India and was, for several years, a member of the steering committee of the Expert Group of Development Issues set up by the Swedish Government. He is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the Exim Bank of India.

He is Editor of Social Choice and Welfare, and served or serves on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Economic Perspectives, Journal of Development Economics, World Bank Economic Review and the Japanese Economic Review.

A Fellow of the Econometric Society, Kaushik Basu has published widely in the areas of Development Economics, Industrial Organization, Game Theory and Welfare Economics. His most recent books are Beyond the Invisible Hand: Groundwork for a New Economics and An Economist’s Miscellany.

In May 2008 he was awarded one of India’s highest civilian awards, the Padma Bhushan, by the President of India. 

Amartya Sen is Thomas W Lamont University Professor, and Professor of Economics and Philosophy, at Harvard University. He is also the recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Economics and an honorary fellow of LSE.

Nicholas Stern is the I G Patel Chair of Economics and Government, Director of the India Observatory and Chairman of the Asia Research Centre at LSE.

Craig Calhoun is the Director of LSE.

Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSESen

Info: Event free and open to all however a ticket is required - further information from LSE Events.

Recordings: Video recording on YouTube, Audio recordings on LSE Media page

Prior to the lecture, Kaushik Basu met with faculty and research students at the Department of Economics.

Dialogue on Creating an EU Capital Markets Union, with Silvana Tenreyro

Co-hosted by the Systemic Risk Centre and Goldman Sachs

Co-hosted by the Systemic Risk Centre and Goldman Sachs, the event brought together recognised thought leaders and key decisions makers from the public and private sectors to engage in a dialogue on the benefits of creating, as well as the steps which can be taken to deliver, a well-functioning European Capital Markets Union.

The Capital Markets Union (CMU) is a plan set out by the European Commission aiming to create deeper and more integrated markets within the 28 EU Member States so as to raise nonbank financing and strengthen cross-border capital flows. The proposed plan will help encourage investments and boost jobs and growth of the economy.

The event, which was held on 23 February, included a panel discussions on the benefits of achieving a Capital Markets Union and on the steps to delivering it as well as a conversation between the UK Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Andrea Leadsom MP and Parliamentary State Secretary, German Federal Ministry of Finance, Steffen Kampeter.

Professor Silvana Tenreyro  from the Department of Economics moderated the panel discussion that focused on the steps necessary to achieve a Capital Markets Union and on how to harness funding sources and instruments to support investment within the EU.  

Further information about the event is available on the LSE News and Media page and the events pages of the Systemic Risk Centre.

View photographs of the event on the Systemic Risk Centre's Flickr page. Videos of the panel discussions and interviews with panel members are available on the Systemic Risk Centre's events page.

Are Welfare Programmes Just Keeping People Out of Work? An Economist's Take on Benefits Street, by Camille Landais

Tuesday 17 February 2015, 6:30-8:00 pm
New Theatre, East Building

Hosted by the Department and the Centre for Macroeconomics

Dr Landais will examine the latest research into the best ways of determining the optimal level of welfare provision and social insurance in developed economies.

Camille Landais is a member of the faculty of the LSE Department of Economics and an Associate on the Public Economics Programme at STICERD.

Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEEcon

Info: Event free and open to all with no ticket or registration required - further information from LSE Events.

Recordings: Video recording on YouTube, Recordings on LSE Media page

Storify overview

How to See into the Future, by Tim Harford

Thursday 5 February 2015, 6:30-8:00 pm
Old Theatre, Old Building

Hosted by the Department and the Centre for Macroeconomics

Tim Harford will explain what’s really going on in the large-scale economic world – and what it means for us all in the future.

Tim Harford is a senior columnist for the Financial Times and the presenter of Radio 4’s More or Less and Pop-Up Economics With Tim Harford. He was the winner of the Bastiat Prize for economic journalism in 2006, and More or Less was commended for excellence in journalism by the Royal Statistical Society in 2010, 2011 and 2012. Harford lives in Oxford with his wife and three children, and is a visiting fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford. His latest book is The Undercover Economist Strikes Back. His other books include The Undercover Economist, The Logic of Life and Adapt.

Wouter Den Haan (chair) is Professor of Economics and Co-Director of the Centre for Macroeconomics.

Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEHarford

Info: Event free and open to all however a ticket is required - further information from LSE Events.

Recordings: Video recording on YouTube, Recordings on LSE Media page

Storify overview

Hall of Mirrors, by Barry Eichengreen

Wednesday 21 January 2015, 6:30-8:00 pm
Old Theatre, Old Building

Hosted by the Department and the Centre for Macroeconomics

Popular understanding of the Great Depression shaped the response to the Great Recession. The experience of the Great Recession will change our understanding of the Great Depression.

Barry Eichengreen (picture copyright: World Economic Forum, swiss-image.ch/Photo by Sebastian Derungs) is Professor of Economics and Political Science at the University of California-Berkeley. His new book is Hall of Mirrors: the Great Depression, the Great Recession, and the uses - and misuses - of history.

Info: Event free and open to all with no ticket or registration required - further information from LSE Events.

Recordings: Video recording on YouTube, Recordings on LSE Media page

Storify overview

Inequality and Taxation in a Globalised World, by Gabriel Zucman

Tuesday 20 January 2015, 6:30-8:00 pm
Hong Kong Theatre, Clement House

Hosted by the Department and the Centre for Macroeconomics

Dr Gabriel Zucman will discuss recent evidence on rising inequality, proposals made to curb these trends and challenges raised by international tax competition and evasion.

Gabriel Zucman is a member of the faculty of the LSE Department of Economics and an Associate on the Public Economics Programme at STICERD. 

Wouter Den Haan (chair) is Professor of Economics and Co-Director of the Centre for Macroeconomics. 

Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEecon

Info: Event free and open to all with no ticket or registration required - further information from LSE Events.

Recordings: Video recording on YouTube, Recordings on LSE Media page

Storify overview

In Conversation with Professor Lawrence H Summers

Tuesday 20 January 2015, 2:00-3:00 pm
Old Theatre, Old Building

Hosted by the Department and the Centre for Macroeconomics

The public conversation with one of America's leading economists, Professor Lawrence H Summers, will focus on the topic of secular stagnation and the report Professor Summers is currently working on, New Approaches to Progressive Policy, which will be published on 15 January.

Former Treasury Secretary Lawrence H Summers is one of America’s leading economists. In addition to serving as 71st Secretary of  the Treasury in the Clinton Administration, Dr Summers served as Director of the White House National Economic Council in the Obama Administration, as President of Harvard University, and as the Chief Economist of the World Bank.

Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSESummers

Info: Event free and open to all however a ticket is required - further information from LSE Events.

Recordings: Video recording on YouTube, Recordings on LSE Media page

Storify overview

Special Interests and the Media: Theory and an application to climate change, by Jesse M Shapiro

Monday 19 January 2015, 6:30-8:00 pm
New Academic Building, Room 2.04

Hosted by the Department and the Grantham Research Institute

This talk will use tools from game theory and economics to study how special interests compete for policy interest through the news media. The talk will explain why competition among special interests can make policy better by revealing useful information. It will also explain why such competition can make policy worse by creating the impression of false doubt and controversy. Climate change has been an example of the latter case, and the speaker will argue that this is, perversely, because the issue is so amenable to scientific analysis. The talk will argue that more partisan media might actually make things better.

Jesse M Shapiro is the George S and Nancy B Parker Professor of Economics at Brown University. He is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and an editor of the Journal of Political Economy. Before joining Brown University, he was the Chookaszian Family Professor of Economics at the  University of Chicago Booth School of Business and the inaugural Becker Fellow at the Becker Center on Chicago Price Theory. His research is in the areas of industrial organization and political economy. Shapiro attended Harvard University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree summa cum laude in economics and a master’s degree in statistics in 2001, and a PhD in economics in 2005. He was a 2011-2012 Alfred P Sloan Research Fellow.

Should Markets be Moral?, by Robert Skildelsky and Felix Martin

Wednesday 14 January 2015, 6:30-8:00 pm
Old Theatre, Old Building

Hosted by the Department and the Centre for Macroeconomics

Professor Lord Skidelsky will be in conversation about the topic  of a recent book he edited, Are Markets Moral?

Robert Skidelsky is Emeritus Professor of Political Economy at the University of Warwick. His three-volume biography of the economist John Maynard Keynes (1983, 1992, 2000) received numerous prizes. More recently he published Keynes: The Return of the Master.

Felix Martin is a macroeconomist and bond investor, author of Money: the Unauthorised Biography.

Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEmarkets

Info: Event free and open to all with no ticket or registration required - further information from LSE Events.

Recordings: Video recording on YouTube, Recordings on LSE Media page

Storify overview

The Consequences of Uncertainty, by Lars Peter Hansen

Thursday 4 December 2014, 6:30-8:00 pm
Sheikh Zayed Lecture Theatre, New Academic Building

Hosted by the LSE SU and the UCL Economics Societies 

The UCLU EFS, UCL Economist’s Society and LSESU Economics Society are proud to present "Lars Peter Hansen - The Consequences of Uncertainty".

Lars Peter Hansen is a renowned Professor at the University of Chicago and a winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize for Economics for his work on the empirical analysis of asset prices.

The Tyranny of Experts, by William Easterly

Monday 8 December 2014 , 6:30-8:00 pm
Old Theatre, Old Building

Hosted by the Department

The admirable fight against global poverty has a blind spot on democracy and human rights, which are both good in themselves and also the most well-proven and lasting path out of poverty. Experts in development have too often unintentionally provided a rationale for oppressive autocrats and unenlightened US foreign policy in poor countries.  

William Easterly (@bill_easterly) is Professor of Economics at New York University and Director of NYU’s Development Research Institute.

Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEexperts

Info: Event free and open to all with no ticket or registration required - further information from LSE Events.

Recordings: Video recording on YouTube, Recordings on LSE Media page

The Economics of Beliefs and Misbeliefs, by Roland Benabou

Tuesday 28 October 2014, 5:00-6:30 pm
Conference Room 1.04, 32 Lincoln's Inn Fields

STICERD Atkinson Lecture Series

We are pleased to announce the inaugural STICERD Atkinson Lecture in honour of LSE's Centennial Professor and STICERD associate Sir Tony A. Atkinson. The lecture is co-sponsored by the Department of Economics.

Roland Bénabou is Theodore A. Wells '29 Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton University. His recent work lies in three main areas. The first links inequality, growth, social mobility and the political economy of redistribution. The second centers on education, social interactions and the socioeconomic structure of cities and the third is that of economics and psychology ("behavioural economics"). More information about his research can be found in his personal page.

Making Markets Fair and Effective, by Minouche Shafik

Monday 27 October 2014, 6:30-8:00 pm
Old Theatre, Old Building

Hosted by the Department, the Centre for Macroeconomics, the Systemic Risk Centre and the International Growth Centre

Nemat (Minouche) Shafik (picture copyright: DFID-UK Department for International Development), LSE Economics alumna, became Deputy Governor of the Bank of England on 1 August 2014. She is Deputy Governor for Markets & Banking. She represents the Bank in international groups and institutions, including as G7 Deputy and in the Bank's engagement with the IMF, overseas central banks and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). Dr Shafik sits on the Monetary Policy Committee, and attends the Financial Policy Committee and the Bank's Court of Directors.

Prior to joining the Bank, she was Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund from 2011-2014 where she was responsible for the IMF’s work in Europe and the Middle East, the IMF’s $1 billion administrative budget, human resources policies for its 3,000 staff and the IMF’s training and technical assistance on a variety of macroeconomic and financial stability issues. She regularly chaired the Board of the IMF and represented the organization in a variety of global fora.

Minouche Shafik was Permanent Secretary of the Department for International Development from March 2008 to March 2011 where she was chief executive of the department responsible for all UK development efforts. Prior to joining DFID in 2004, Minouche Shafik was Vice President at the World Bank where she improved the performance of a private sector and infrastructure portfolio of investments worth about $50 billion and managed global groups to provide both policy advice, debt and equity investments jointly with the International Finance Corporation in the areas of oil, gas and mining, telecommunications, small and medium enterprises, project finance and guarantees.

Minouche Shafik has also chaired six international consultative groups and served on seven boards on a wide range of sectors and issues. She has held academic appointments at the Wharton Business School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Economics Department at Georgetown University. Minouche Shafik attained her BA in Economics and Politics from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, her MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a DPhil in Economics from St. Antony's College, Oxford University. Minouche Shafik has authored, edited, and co-authored a number of books and articles on a wide variety of economic topics.

Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEBoE

Info: Event free and open to all however a ticket is required - further information from LSE Events.

Recordings: Video recording on YouTube, Recordings on LSE Media page

Transcript

The Shifts and The Shocks: What we've learned - and still have to learn - from the financial crisis, by Martin Wolf

Tuesday 16 September 2014, 6:30-8:00 pm
Old Theatre, Old Building

Hosted by the Department and the Centre for Macroeconomics

Chief Economics Commentator of the Financial Times Martin Wolf gives an insightful and timely analysis of why the financial crisis occurred, and of the radical reforms needed if we are to avoid a future repeat. At this event he will be conversation with Adair Turner.

This event marks the publication of The Shifts and The Shocks.

Martin Wolf is Associate Editor and Chief Economics Commentator at the Financial Times, London. He has been visiting professor of Oxford and Nottingham Universities, a fellow of the World Economic Forum in Davos, and a member of the UK's Vickers Commission on Banking, which reported in 2011. He is an honorary graduate of LSE.

Adair Turner has combined careers in business, public policy and academia. He became Chairman of the United Kingdom Financial Services Authority as the financial crisis broke in September 2008. He is now a Senior Fellow of the Institute for New Economic Thinking, and at the Centre for Financial Studies in Frankfurt. Lord Turner became a cross-bench member of the House of Lords in 2005.   

Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEWolf

Info: Event free and open to all with no ticket or pre-registration required

Recordings: Video recording on YouTube, Recordings on LSE Media page

Storify overview