6:00 pm, Proshansky Auditorium
The French economist Thomas Piketty (Paris School of Economics) will present a lecture on his new book, Capital in the Twenty-First Century. In this landmark book, Piketty argues that the main driver of inequality—the tendency of returns on capital to exceed the rate of economic growth—threatens to generate extreme inequalities that stir discontent and undermine democratic values. He calls for political action and policy intervention. Joseph Stiglitz (Columbia University), Paul Krugman (Princeton University), and Steven Durlauf (University of Wisconsin–Madison) will comment. The event will be introduced and moderated by Janet Gornick and Branko Milanovic (Graduate Center, Luxembourg Income Study Center).
Co-sponsored by the Luxembourg Income Study Center and the Advanced Research Collaborative.
Free, Reservations Required
http://community.gc.cuny.edu/capital-in-the-twenty-first-century
For more information, or assistance with reservations, call GC Public Programs at 212-817-8215.
Participant Bios:
Thomas Piketty is professor at the Paris School of Economics and a major contributor to the World Top Incomes Database, along with Tony Atkinson, Emmanuel Saez, and Facundo Alvaredo. He has published many academic papers on income distribution, and is, with Atkinson, co-editor of Top Incomes: A Global Perspective and Top Incomes over the Twentieth Century: A Contrast between Continental European and English-Speaking Countries.
Joseph Stiglitz, university professor at Columbia University, is the author of, most recently, The Price of Inequality: How Today’s Divided Society Endangers Our Future. In 2001, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics, and he was a lead author of the 1995 Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. In 2011, Time named Stiglitz one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
Paul Krugman won the 2008 Nobel Prize in Economics. He is currently professor of economics and international affairs at Princeton University. In summer 2014, Krugman will join the LIS Center as a distinguished scholar; he will join the economics faculty of the Graduate Center in fall 2015. Krugman is the author of, most recently, End This Depression Now! A noted New York Times columnist, he also writes a popular blog, “The Conscience of a Liberal.”
Steven Durlauf is Vilas Research Professor and Kenneth J. Arrow and Laurits R. Christensen Professor of Economics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is currently co-leader of the Working Group on Measurement and Interpretation of Inequality, part of INET Global Working Group on Human Capital and Economic Inequality, and co-director of the Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Global Working Group. He is coeditor of nine books and a contributing author to over 100 papers.
Branko Milanovic is a senior scholar at the LIS Center and visiting presidential professor at the Graduate Center. He is author of, most recently, The Haves and Have-Nots, and his review of Piketty’s new book is forthcoming in the Journal of Economic Literature.
Janet Gornick is professor of political science and sociology at the Graduate Center, director of both LIS and the LIS Center at the Graduate Center, co-editor of the recently published Income Inequality: Economic Disparities and the Middle Class in Affluent Countries, and coauthor of Gender Equality: Transforming Family Divisions of Labor.