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Some Fundamentals of Economics: Allocation, Knowledge, and Prices
September 28, 2015Preston Auditorium
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    Kenneth Arrow

    Kenneth Arrow is the Joan Kenney Professor of Economics and Professor of Operations Research, emeritus, at Stanford University; a fellow of the Center for Health Policy and the Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research and senior fellow by courtesy of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University. He is a Nobel Prize-winning economist whose work has been primarily in economic theory and operations, focusing on areas including social choice theory, risk bearing, medical economics, general equilibrium analysis, inventory theory, and the economics of information and innovation. Arrow was one of the first economists to note the existence of a learning curve, and he also showed that under certain conditions an economy reaches a general equilibrium. In 1972, together with Sir John Hicks, he won the Nobel Prize in economics, for his pioneering contributions to general equilibrium theory and welfare theory. Arrow has served on the economics faculties of the University of Chicago, Harvard and Stanford. Prior to that, he served as a weather officer in the U.S. Air Corps (1942–46), and a research associate at the Cowles Commission for Research in Economics (1947–49). In addition to the Nobel Prize, he has received the American Economic Association's John Bates Clark Medal. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine. He received a BS from City College, an MA and PhD from Columbia University, and holds approximately 20 honorary degrees.
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    Eric Maskin is Adams University Professor at Harvard. He received the 2007 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics (with L. Hurwicz and R. Myerson) for laying the foundations of mechanism design theory. He has also contributed to game theory, contract theory, social choice theory, political economy, and other areas of economics. He received his A.B. and Ph.D. from Harvard and was a postdoctoral fellow at Jesus College, Cambridge University. He was a faculty member at MIT from 1977–1984, Harvard from 1985–2000, and the Institute for Advanced Study from 2000-2011. He rejoined the Harvard faculty in 2012. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and a fellow of the Econometric Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the British Academy, the European Economic Association, the Royal Spanish Academy of Economics and Finance, and the Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory. Maskin is an honorary professor of six universities and the recipient of nine honorary doctorates. Among other prizes, he has received the Kempe Award in environmental economics (with P. Dasgupta), the EFR-Business Week Award, the Grande Médaille from both the cities of Marseille and Toulouse, the Harvard Centennial Medal, the Cristóbal Gabarrón Foundation International Award in Economics, the Louise Blouin Foundation Award, and the Jean-Jacques Laffont Prize. He has served as editor of the Quarterly Journal of Economics, Economics Letters, and the Economic Theory Monograph Series (World Scientific Publishing) and as associate or advisory editor of several other journals. He is a past president of the Econometric Society and the Game Theory Society. He is the director of the Jerusalem Summer School in Economic Theory.
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    Kaushik Basu

    Senior Vice President and Chief Economist, World Bank
    Kaushik Basu is Senior Vice President (Development Economics) and Chief Economist of the World Bank. Prior to this, he 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.
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The Development Economics Vice Presidency (DEC) launched its lecture series in April 2005 to bring distinguished academics to the Bank to present and discuss new knowledge on development. The purpose of the Lecture Series is to introduce ideas on cutting edge research, challenge and contribute to the Bank's intellectual climate, and reexamine current development theories and practices. The Lectures revisit issues of long-standing concern and explore emerging issues that promise to be central to future development discourse. The Lecture Series reflects DEC's commitment to intellectual leadership and openness in embracing future challenges to reduce poverty.

The DEC Lecture Series is chaired by Kaushik Basu, Senior Vice President and Chief Economist, and includes a presentation and floor discussion. 

Lecture Details
  • Date: September, 28, 2015
  • Time: 12:30 PM-2:00 PM
  • Venue: Preston Auditorium
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