Shared prosperity:

Kaushik Basu is an Indian economist who is currently Senior Vice-President and Chief Economist of the World Bank. He will give this year's Chr. Michelsen lecture at CMI on the new World Bank goal of "Shared Prosperity".

The World Bank Group recently adopted two overarching goals--the end of extreme, chronic poverty in the world by 2030 and the promotion of shared prosperity in all societies. Kaushik Basu will in the Chr. Michelsen lecture discuss the normative properties of these goals, and their implications for actual policymaking, especially in the presence of globalization. The 'shared prosperity' goal, in particular, is new for the World Bank. He will discuss some of the analytical foundations of this goal as well as the practical considerations that went into its adoption. This discussion is related to the age-old debate on growth versus direct welfare interventions as instruments for countering poverty. Basu will analyze past trends and try to shed light on this old debate in the context of current global developments."

Kaushik Basu is on leave from Cornell University where he holds a chair in the Department of Economics. He previously served as Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India. Prof. Basu has written extensively on development issues, with major contributions to the economics of child labor, the measurement of literacy, rural contracts and economic organization, international capital markets, and the role of customs and norms in development. He is the President-elect of the International Economic Association and will be taking over as President in 2017. His most recent book, An Economist in the Real World: The Art of Policymaking in India, was published last month by MIT Press.


Time: 15 March 18:00-19:00

Venue: The University Aula, Muséplassen 3