Distinguished Lecture Series

Daron Acemoglu, Professor of Economics, MIT
Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty
April 4th, 2012
Dr. Acemoglu discussed why some nations are rich while others are poor. He argued that factors like geography, resource endowments, and even leadership are not he the primary determinants of economic development. Instead, he argued that institutional development is the primary cause and identified the conditions are necessary to have this prerequisite for sustained development.

Arvind Subramanian, Senior Fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics and the Center for Global Development.
Does China Challenge What We Know About Development?
February 21, 2012
Dr. Subramanian, author of Eclipse: Living in the Shadow of ChinaÃ_s Economic Dominance, discussed if and how ChinaÃ_s accelerated rise challenges assumptions once held regarding economic development and the geo-political system.

Dani Rodrik, Professor of International Political Economy, Harvard University
The Globalization Paradox: Democracy and the Future of the World Economy
April 28, 20111
Professor Rodrik discussed the challenges that nations face as they try to effectively take advantage of globalization. Taking lessons from economic history, he argues that nations cannot subordinate national priorities to the demands of globalization

Raghuram Rajan, Professor of Finance, University of Chicago Booth School of Business
Fault Lines: How Hidden Fractures Still Threaten the World Economy
April 15, 20111
Dr. Rajan argues that fissures which caused the 2008 financial crisis are more hidden and widespread than many realize. The likely culprits are not obvious culprits like greedy bankers, sleepy regulators, and irresponsible borrowers, but the growing level of inequality in the United States.

Ian Bremmer, President and Founder of the Eurasia Group
The Global Battle for Economic Ideas
November 4, 2010
Over the past century, most of the world's most influential ideas in politics and economics have originated in the West. Are emerging market countries going to produce their own political-economic ideas that threaten the West's intellectual dominance? What types of influential ideas are likely to come out of these rising powers.

Daniel Drezner, Professor of International Politics at Tufts University
The End of America's Global Hegemony: Implications for the Global System
October 21, 2010
Professor Drezner spoke on the implications of a multipolar world where the United States is no longer the sole superpower. Specifically, he discussed the prospects for global coordination in a world without a dominant power.

Francis Fukuyama, Professor of International Political Economy, SAIS
Getting to Denmark: A Long-Term Look at the Development of Political Institutions
September 16 - October 14, 2009
These four lectures, drawn from Professor Fukyama's book on the subject, talk about getting to a mythical country called "Denmark," a place which is stable, peaceful, democratic, inclusive, with good public services and low levels of corruption 

Martin Wolf, Chief Economics Columnist, Financial Times
Fixing Global Finance
March 28-30, 2006
Martin Wolf, associate editor and chief economics commentator for the Financial Times, spoke at a three-part lecture series about "Fixing Global Finance"

Amartya Sen, Professor of Economics, Harvard University
The Foundations of Democracy
November 15-17, 2005
Amartya Sen, Nobel Prize-winning economist and Harvard UniversityÃ_s Lamont University Professor, spoke at a three-part lecture series about "The Foundations of Democracy"