Lecture by Mr. Kaushik Basu”Human behavior and economic development”
Institute of International Relations and Political Science would like to kindly invite you to the lecture delivered by Mr Kaushik Basu, Senior Vice President (Development Economics) and Chief Economist of the World Bank. April 24th (Thursday) from 11 a.m. in the 402 Conference room.
Topic: “Human behavior and economic development”
The phrase “Economic development depends on economic policy,” sounds like an obvious axiom. And that has been the mainstay of development policy for a long time. But research and mounting evidence over the last two decades or so have alerted us to the fact that economic development also depends on human psychology, culture and social norms. This does not detract from the importance of long-standing wisdom about economic policies. It simply means that growth and development have other drivers that can play a powerful role but have languished unused in the sidelines. This is the theme of the upcoming World Development Report 2015 of the World Bank Group, which draws on the growing literature to broaden the policy space for economic development. At the lecture at Institute of International Relations and Political Science (Vilnius University), the Chief Economist and Sr. Vice President of the World Bank, Kaushik Basu will speak about the Report and go beyond it to discuss the role of multi-disciplinary methods for development and growth.
Earlier in his career Mr. Basu served as Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India and is currently on leave from Cornell University where he is Professor of Economics and the C. Marks Professor of International Studies. Mr. Basu is a Fellow of the Econometric Society and received India’s Padma Bhushan award as well as the National Mahalanobis Memorial award. Mr. Basu’s contributions span development economics, welfare economics, industrial organization and game theory. In addition to Cornell, he has taught at the Delhi School of Economics, Harvard, Princeton and MIT. He has published widely, including more than 160 papers in refereed journals and scholarly volumes, and has contributed articles to many widely read magazines and newspapers. He has authored several books including “Beyond the Invisible Hand: Groundwork for a new Economics” (Princeton University Press and Penguin). Mr. Basu holds a PhD in economics from the London School of Economics. He is the second World Bank Chief Economist from a developing country and the first from India.
