Events 2020-2021

Professor Joel Mokyr's lecture was part of the Hayek Programme

17 June 2021, 6.30-7.30pm

Joel Mokyr will discuss the Great Divergence, the rapid economic and technological growth between c. 1500 and 1950, that gave the West the opportunity to dominate (and often oppress and exploit) the rest of the world.

The lecture will answer a simple but haunting question: how were they able to do that?

Joel Mokyr is the Robert H. Strotz Professor of Arts and Sciences and Professor of Economics and History at Northwestern University and Sackler Professor (by special appointment) at the Eitan Berglas School of Economics at the University of Tel Aviv. His most recent book is A Culture of Growth, published in 2016. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Mary Morgan (Chair) is Albert O. Hirschman Professor of History and Philosophy of Economics in the Department of Economic History at LSE.

Find out more.

Watch the video

Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEEconomics

June 2021

3 June 2021, 4-5.15pm

Peter Henry will discuss how poor countries lack infrastructure services: 1.2 billion people have no electricity and 1 billion live more than 2 kilometers from an all-weather road.

Peter Henry is WR Berkley Professor of Economics and Finance and Dean Emeritus at NYU’s Stern School of Business, and Principal Investigator at the Ph.D. Excellence Initiative, a post-baccalaureate program that addresses underrepresentation in economics by mentoring exceptional students of color interested in pursuing doctoral studies.

Tim Besley (Chair) is Professor of Economics and Political Science and Sir W. Arthur Lewis Professor of Development Economics at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Find out more.

Listen to the podcast | Watch the video

Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSECOVID19

June 2021

13-14 May 2021

The Editors of the Journal Economica are pleased to invite you to the journal’s Centenary Conference (Online). The Journal was established in 1921 and has served as the LSE “house” journal throughout its history. 

Daron Acemoglu, a former LSE PhD student, will give a public lecture on 13 May at 14.00 (BST). To add to the celebratory conference, a select group of former LSE students and faculty will also present papers.

Find out more.

May 2021

4 May 2021, 4-5pm

Philippe Aghion offers a cutting-edge analysis of what drives economic growth and a blueprint for prosperity under capitalism.

Philippe Aghion is Professor at the Collège de France and LSE and was previously Professor of Economics at Harvard. His new book The Power of Creative Destruction, is co-authored with Céline Antonin and Simon Bunel.

Steve Pischke (Chair) has been in the Economics Department at LSE since 2000, is an associate in the CEP, and currently Head of the Department. He was previously editor of the European Economic Review and the Economic Journal. He has written two books with Joshua Angrist Mostly Harmless Econometrics and Mastering Metrics.

Find out more.

May 2021

Join the LSESU Central Banking Society to hear from leading and eminent policymakers from the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England, as they share more about the future of Monetary Policy, the state of the economy, and financial risks arising from climate change.

23 March, 1-2pm:
Speaker: James Bullard, President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
Topic: US Economy and Monetary Policy
Watch the video

24 March, 2-3pm:
Speaker: Dr Gertjian Vlieghe, External Member of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC)
Topic: Monetary Policy in a Changed World
**Closed door event for LSE students and staff only**

25 March, 12-1pm:
Speaker: Professor Julia Black, External Member of the Prudential Regulation Committee and the SONIA Committee
Topic: Evaluating Financial Risks from Climate Change
Watch the video

Find out more here.

March 2021

Wednesday 10 March 2021, 4.00-5.00pm
Online event

Hosted by the Economica Journal and the Department of Economics

In this lecture, Thomas Piketty offers a refreshing perspective on the historical rise of equality from the 18th century until the early 21st century. The primary determinants of inequality regimes across societies, Piketty argues, are political and ideological, rather than economic or technological. If we remember lessons as to how societies handled past inequality crisis, it is possible to pursue the long-run trend toward equality.

LSE alumnus Thomas Piketty is Professor at EHESS and the Paris School of Economics.

Tim Besley (Chair) is School Professor of Economics of Political Science and W. Arthur Lewis Professor of Development Economics in the Department of Economics at LSE.

Find out more and how to attend here. 

Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSECoase

March 2021

Monday 8 February 2021, 4.30-5.30pm
Online event

Hosted by the Centre for Economic Performance

How can the UK and the world get back to sustainable growth following the COVID-19 pandemic? Pulling together the lessons of 30 years of work on technology, management and productivity, John Van Reenen will argue that innovation is the key to rekindling our economies.

John Van Reenen (@johnvanreenen) is Ronald Coase School Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics and Political Science and was previously Director of CEP from 2003-2016.

Minouche Shafik (Chair) is Director of the London School of Economics and Political Science. Prior to this, she was Deputy Governor of the Bank of England.

Watch the video and listen to the podcast.

Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSECOVID19

February 2021

Friday 29 January 2021, 4.00-5.00pm
Online event

Hosted by the Department of Economics

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, capitalism was stuck. It had no answer to the different challenges facing the world – from those related to health to digital privacy to the climate crisis. Taking inspiration from President Kennedy’s ‘moonshot’ programmes that successfully co-ordinated public and private sectors to put a man on the moon, Mariana Mazzucato calls for the same level of boldness and experimentation to be applied to the biggest social and political issues of our time. She argues we need to rethink the capacities and role of government within the economy and society, and above all recover a sense of public purpose.

Mariana Mazzucato is Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value at University College London, where she is Founding Director of the Institute for Innovation & Public Purpose. Her new book is Mission Economy: A Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism.

Alan Manning (Chair) is Professor of Economics in the Department of Economics at LSE.

Watch the video and listen to the podcast.

Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEMazzucato

January 2021

Wednesday 16 December 2020, 5.45pm-7pm
Online event

Hosted by the Department of Economics and the Centre for Economic Performance

Advances in artificial intelligence, robotics, biotechnology and other areas are bound to have ever greater impacts on jobs and the labour market. How will the employment prospects and wages of different types of workers be impacted by these developments? Are jobs going to disappear? 

Join us for a public panel on Technology and the labour market to mark 10 years of Chris Pissarides' Nobel Prize. The panel will be chaired by LSE Director Minouche Shafik. 

Panelists: Chris Pissarides (LSE), Barbara Petrongolo (Oxford University), Rachel Ngai (LSE) and Daniel Susskind (Oxford University).

Watch the video.

December 2020

Monday 30 November 2020, 4pm-5pm
Online event

Hosted by Economica and the Department of Economics

Dr. Rohini Pande is the Henry J. Heinz II Professor of Economics and Director of the Economic Growth Center, Yale University. She is a co-editor of American Economic Review: Insights.

Pande’s research is largely focused on how formal and informal institutions shape power relationships and patterns of economic and political advantage in society, particularly in developing countries. She is interested the role of public policy in providing the poor and disadvantaged political and economic power, and how notions of economic justice and human rights can help justify and enable such change.

Further information via LSE Events.

Watch the video and listen to the podcast.

Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSECoase

November 2020

Economics Alumni Lecture *for LSE Economics Alumni only

Tuesday 27 October 2020, 12.00pm-2.00pm
Online event

Speaker: Lord Nicholas Stern
Title: The Economics of Sustainable Growth in an Uncertain World: Urgency, scale, choice
Chair: Professor Steve Pischke
Alumni speaker: Tam Trinh (BSc Economics 2012)
Location: Hosted online via Zoom

Information here

Nicholas Stern (Lord Stern of Brentford, CH, Kt, FBA, FRS) is the IG Patel Professor of Economics and Government, Chairman of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment and Head of the India Observatory at the London School of Economics. He was President of the Royal Economic Society (2018-19) and President of the British Academy (2013- 2017). He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society (June 2014). He has held academic appointments in the UK at Oxford, Warwick, the LSE and abroad at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Ecole Polytechnique and the Collège de France in Paris, the Indian Statistical Institute in Bangalore and Delhi, and the Peopleʼs University of China in Beijing. He was Chief Economist of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development 1994-1999, and Chief Economist and Senior Vice President at the World Bank, 2000-2003.  He was knighted in 2004, made a cross-bench life peer in 2007 and appointed Companion of Honour in 2017 for services to economics, international relations and tackling climate change.   

Lord Stern was Second Permanent Secretary to Her Majesty’s Treasury from 2003-2005; Director of Policy and Research for the Prime Minister’s Commission for Africa from 2004-2005; Head of the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change, published in 2006; and Head of the Government Economic Service from 2003-2007.  He is a member of the High-Level Advisory Group for COP26 of the UNFCCC.

He has published more than 15 books and 100 articles.  His most recent books are “Why Are We Waiting? The Logic, Urgency and Promise of Tackling Climate Change” (MIT Press, 2015) and “How Lives Change. Palanpur, India and Development Economics” (with Himanshu, JNU, and Peter Lanjouw, Free University of Amsterdam) published by Oxford University Press in 2018.

Tam Trinh, BSc Economics 2012
Tam Trinh studied BSc. Economics at LSE. After graduation, Tam joined PwC as a consultant to work on issues relating to people, organisations and the labor market. During her time there, she went on a secondment to Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Labor to work on the design and delivery of intensive upskilling and employment programs for the national labor force with Saudi Arabia. She most recently worked as a senior policy and economics advisor at HM Treasury's strategic projects team, where she has worked on a range of issues across government. Tam has been an ambassador at LSE's Widening Participation program and an active mentor both at PwC and HMT's mentoring programs, where she coached students from underprivileged backgrounds to broaden their understanding of educational and career options. Tam is currently continuing her education by undertaking a Masters in International and Development Economics at Yale University and as a Fulbright Scholar. At Yale, she plans to explore the impact of shocks, such as trade and technology shocks, on the labour market, and the economic opportunities and challenges for policy makers.

October 2020