Harcourt Memorial Lecture: Jayati Ghosh

Growth, employment, inequality: Broken links and strategies for the future

The School of Creative Management is delighted to be welcoming Prof. Jayati Ghosh, Professor of Economics at University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA, to deliver the Inaugural G.C. Harcourt Memorial Lecture at Goldsmiths.

Abstract for the talk:

Economic growth was perceived as strongly linked to employment generation, while rising inequality was seen as a necessary part of the growth process because of incentives. Neither link has been evident in recent global experience, which calls for a rethinking of these relationships and a changed approach to development strategies. Such rethinking could involve making good quality employment generation and reduced inequalities the main economic policy goals—in line with Geoff Harcourt’s own humanistic approach.

Speaker bio:

Jayati Ghosh is Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, USA. Before that she taught economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi for nearly 35 years. She is the author or editor of 20 books and over 200 scholarly articles. Her recent books include The Making of a Catastrophe: Covid-19 and the Indian Economy (Aleph, 2022), When Governments Fail: Covid-19 and the Economy (Tulika/Columbia, 2021, co-edited), Women Workers in the Informal Economy (Routledge, 2021).

She has received several major awards, including the Adisheshaiah Award (2015), the ILO Decent Work Research Prize (2011), NordSud Prize (2010) and the John Kenneth Galbraith Award (2023). Prof. Ghosh has advised governments in India and abroad, served as the Executive Secretary of the network of heterodox economists IDEAs from 2002 to 2021. She has consulted widely for international organisations such as the ILO, UNDP, UNCTAD, UN-DESA, UNRISD and UN Women. She recently co-authored the G20 Global Inequality Report.

She currently serves on several high-level international bodies, including the UN Advisory Board on Economic and Social Affairs, INET’s Commission on Global Economic Transformation, International Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation (ICRICT), WHO Council on the Economics of Health for All and the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Advisory Board on Effective Multilateralism. Ghosh writes frequently for newspapers, journals and online media.

Dates & times

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