First Luca d’Agliano Lecture in Development Economics

First Luca d’Agliano Lecture in Development Economics: “Globalisation and the Poor” by Pranab Bardhan (University of California at Berkeley), 10 June 2003, 5 p.m., Fondazione Luigi Einaudi, Palazzo d’Azeglio, Via Principe Amedeo 34, 10123 Turin.

Abstract
The presentation will start with a spelling out of the alternative meanings of globalisation that have been used in the debates and a delimitation to the case of international economic integration through foreign trade and long-term investment. Then noting that the various statements usually made in the debate are based at best on correlation, not causal processes, the presentation will focus on these latter processes particularly as they pertain to the world’s poor in their capacity as workers and as recipients of public services. It will end with a discussion of the various constraints on and opportunities for domestic and international policy towards poverty alleviation that participation in the international economic order entails for both rich and poor countries; this will include an attempt at picking one’s way through the thickets of the raging controversies around WTO, international labour and environmental standards, and intellectual property rights on life-saving drugs.

Biography
Pranab Bardhan has been Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, since 1977 and Chief Editor of the “Journal of Development Economics” since 1985, after having held teaching positions at MIT, the Indian Statistical Institute and at the Delhi School of Economics. He is also co-director of a research network on “Inequality and Economic Performance” funded by the MacArthur Foundation. He has carried out theoretical and field studies research on rural institutions in poor countries, on the political economy of development policies and on international trade. Apart from having published over one hundred articles for international journals, he is the author of seven books and editor of seven others. He has also been awarded a number of important prizes and fellowships.

Programme
Text of the Lecture