GDP Center Hosts Joseph Stiglitz For Inaugural Paul Streeten Lecture

The Global Development Policy (GDP) Center, an affiliated center of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, held the Inaugural Paul Streeten Distinguished Lecture in Global Development Policy on March 29th, 2019 featuring Joseph E. Stiglitz, Nobel Prize-winning economist and professor at Columbia University.

The Paul Streeten Distinguished Lecture in Global Development Policy celebrates the example and legacy of Professor Paul Streeten as an eminent economist and interdisciplinary scholar who has had a significant impact on global development policy. The joint sponsorship of this lecture by Boston University’s Global Development Policy Center, the Institute for Economic Development, and the Department of Economics reflects the breadth of his engagement at Boston University during his years as Professor of Economics and Director of the World Development Institute. 

Stiglitz gave a lecture entitled “Multilateralism and Development,” that focused on a range of topics including the role of the United States in establishing the present rules-based international order.

“The United States led in creating the rules-based international order but unfortunately it is now leading to its destruction,” said Stiglitz. “Multilateralism is too important to be allowed to be destroyed by any country, let alone any individual.”

You can watch the entire lecture below:

Stiglitz also discussed the source of the current problems presented by globalization — stressing that these issues aren’t the result of an unfair international playing field. 

“The problems presented by globalization are not result of ‘unfair’ international rules, or others taking advantage of the U.S., but are of our own making, our failure to help in the restructuring of the U.S. economy and inadequate systems of social protection,” Stiglitz said. 

Stiglitz is the co-chair of the High-Level Expert Group on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress at the OECD, and the Chief Economist of the Roosevelt Institute.  A recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (2001) and the John Bates Clark Medal (1979), he is a former senior vice president and chief economist of the World Bank and a former member and chairman of the (US president’s) Council of Economic Advisers. In 2011 Stiglitz was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Known for his pioneering work on asymmetric information, Stiglitz’s work focuses on income distribution, risk, corporate governance, public policy, macroeconomics and globalization. He is the author of numerous books, and several bestsellers. His most recent titles are Globalization and Its Discontents Revisited, The Euro, Rewriting the Rules of the American Economy and The Great Divide.

The GDP Center is a university-wide research center in partnership with the Office of the Vice President and Associate Provost for Research and the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies. The GDP Center’s mission is to advance policy-oriented research for financial stability, human well-being, and environmental sustainability.

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