Conversations with Economists Lecture Series
Presented by the Department of Economics at Boston University and open to the public. For information, please contact: Norma Hardeo at hardeo@bu.edu or (617) 353-462.
Upcoming Lectures
The Euro Crisis |
| Monday, April 8, 2013
5:00 – 6:30 pm Room 315 Department of Economics, 264 Bay State Road |
| Presented by Hans-Werner Sinn, President, Ifo Institute |
| The Eurozone is experiencing a major crisis. In his lecture, Hans-Werner Sinn offers insights into the current situation and shows that system failure poses a threat to Germany, and is forcing it to make concessions in negotiations over bailout packages. |
Stand-Up Economist Yoram Bauman |
| Tuesday, April 16, 2013
5:30 – 7:00pm Morse Auditorium 602 Commonwealth Ave. |
| Presented by Yoram Bauman, PhD |
| The world’s first and only stand-up economist. Comedian, author, and economist! |
Previous Lectures
Left Populism in Bolivia:
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| Tuesday, December 4th, 2012
5:00 – 6:30 pm Room 315 Department of Economics, 264 Bay State Road |
| Presented by Juan Antonio Morales, Former President of the Central Bank of Bolivia |
| Juan Antonio Morales will present a critical examination of the policies and politics of the government of Evo Morales |
Culture Change:
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| Tuesday, October 23, 2012
5:30 – 7:00pm Room 315 Department of Economics, 270 Bay State Road |
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| Presented by Steve Brown , Former Chairman and CEO of John Hancock Financial Services | |
| Mr. Brown believes that corporate culture is both the most critical determinant of success, and the most difficult thing to change. He will illustrate this in relation to his own career at John Hancock, and comment, as well, on the impact of corporate culture on the many ethical and other issues we read about in today’s business pages. | |
Grand Pursuit:
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Thursday, September 27, 2012 4:00 – 5:30pm Photonics Room 206 8 St. Mary’s Street |
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| Presented by Sylvia Nasar | |
| In a sweeping narrative, the author of A Beautiful Mind will take you on a journey through modern history with the men and women who changed the lives of every single person on the planet. It’s the epic story of the making of modern economics, and of how economics rescued mankind from squalor and deprivation by placing its material fate in its own hands rather than in Fate. | |
International Money |
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| Monday, October 3rd, 2011 5:30-7pm CAS, Room 224 725 Commonwealth Avenue (map) |
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| Presented by Philip Turner, Bank of International Settlements (BIS) |
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| What is international money?”. The 2007-20xx financial crisis has given thisold question new life. Central banks are not only the ultimate providers of domestic money, but also have the capacity to influence exchange rates and long-term debt markets. Because most international contracts are in dollars,the Federal Reserve has a pivotal role that has been reinforced by the crisis.But the massive dollar investments of other central banks also have an impact.What the international banking system does to “multiply” (or more recently“divide”) the money that central banks “create” will change over time. We try to understand how central banks should in turn respond to the reactions of international banks. | |
Trailer Park Economics |
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| March 28, 2011 6:00 – 7:30 pm CAS , Room 313 725 Commonwealth Avenue (map) |
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| Presented by Charles M. Becker, Research Professor of Economics, Associate Department Chair, Duke University Caitlin Gorback, Research Assistant, Federal Reserve Bank, NY, Snr undergrad honors student, Duke |
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| While the mortgage crisis has focused attention on the housing market, virtually no attention has been paid to a particular segment — manufactured housing. And within the manufactured housing market, of particular interest is the peculiar American institution of mobile home parks. Yet manufactured housing and trailer parks are important components of the housing market, especially in the southeast and southwest. In North Carolina, more than 1.5 million of the state’s 9 million people live in manufactured housing. Yet, those who live in trailer parks have minimal security of tenure: as a rule, structure and site owners differ, “mobile” homes are not really mobile, and homeowners face disastrous losses if evicted. We explore economic models that would give rise to this phenomenon — there turns out to be several — and offer preliminary empirical indications of the importance of different explanations. | |
Psychology of a Superorganism: Collective Decision-making by Ant Colonies |
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| March 31, 2011 5:00 – 6:30 pm 264 Bay State Road, Room 315 |
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| Presented by Stephen Pratt, School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University | |
| Ant colonies can be thought of as “superorganisms” that combine the actions of many individuals into a highly integrated whole. Like an organism, a colony acts as a single cognitive entity, making decisions about what to eat, where to live, and how to defend itself. I will describe the behavioral rules and communication networks that allow many poorly informed ants to make a good collective choice. Borrowing ideas from psychology and economics, I will show how colonies amplify the limited cognitive capacity of single ants and how they evade certain irrational consequences of individual choice. |