Woodward Lectures

Mr. Eugene Sidney Woodward was a journalist who enjoyed a successful career writing for newspapers such as the Vancouver Sun, Vancouver Province, and Vancouver News-Herald and published under the pseudonym, Gene Ard.

Through the generosity of Mr. Woodward, UBC has established a lectureship to perpetuate his spirit of concern for economic freedom and his interest in fresh approaches to contemporary economic problems and institutions. The Vancouver School of Economics administers the lectureship.

The Vancouver School of Economics is hosting economist Dr. Chang-Tai Hsieh for a free lecture entitled “Where is the Chinese economy going?” as part of the 2023 Woodward Lecture Series in EARTH SCIENCES BUILDING (ESB) – Room 2012, located at 2207 Main Mall.

  • Date: 17 October 2023 (Tuesday)
  • Time: 12:30pm – 2:00pm
  • Location: ESB 2012 (Earth Science Building Rm 2012)

Chang-Tai Hsieh is the Phyllis and Irwin Winkelried Distinguished Service Professor of Economics and PCL Faculty Scholar at the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business. He is a leading scholar in Economic Growth, in particular, the growth experience of Asian and Latin American countries. His research has been published in top academic journals in Economics and has been covered in media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, the Economist, the Guardian, and the New York Times. He is the recipient of an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Research Fellowship, an Elected Member of Academia Sinica, and a two-time recipient of the Sun Ye-Fang Prize.

Past Lectures

September 2022: Emmanuel Saez, University of California Berkeley

  • New Findings from the World Inequality Report

October 2019: Monika Piazzesi, Stanford University

  • Learning about Housing Cost

April 2018: Orazio Attanasio, University College London

  • The Accumulation of Human Capital

September 2016: Philippe Aghion, London School of Economics & Stockholm University

  • Innovation, Inequality and Social Mobility

November 2015: Nobel Laureate Alvin Roth, Stanford University

  • Repugnant Transactions

March 2015: Janet Currie, Princeton University

  • Inequality in Health at Birth: Why is it Falling in the USA? 

2012: Michael Kremer, Harvard University

  • Health and Development

April 2012: Alberto Alesina, Harvard University

  • Fiscal Policy after the Great Recession

October 2009: Mark Rosenzweig, Yale University

  • Global Wage Inequality and the International Flow of Migrants
  • Altruism, Favoritism, and Guilt in the Allocation of Family Resources: Sophie’s Choice in Mao’s Mass Send-Down Movement

September 2008: Susan Athey, Harvard University

  • Market Design in Theory and Practice: Sponsored Search Auctions
  • Position Auctions with Consumer Search

March 2008: David Card, University of California, Berkeley

  • How Immigration is Shaping Major Cities
  • Does Medicare Save Lives?

September 2006: Daron Acemoglu, MIT

  • Learning and Disagreement in an Uncertain World
  • Rethinking the Wealth of Nations

February 2005: Matthew Rabin, University of California, Berkeley

  • The Economics of Immediate Gratification
  • A Model of Reference-Dependent Preferences

March 2004: Maurice Obstfeld, University of California, Berkeley

  • Globalization in Historical Perspective
  • The Case for Open Market Operations in a Liquidity Trap

September 2003: Ariel Rubinstein, Tel Aviv University & Princeton University

  • John Nash, A Beautiful Mind and Game Theory
  • Equilibrium in the Jungle

February 2002: Daniel McFadden, University of California, Berkeley

  • Economic Choices
  • Healthy, Wealthy, & Wise? Tests for Direct Causal Paths

November 2001: Richard Freeman, Harvard University & LSE

  • The Impact of the Internet on the Economy
  • Liking the Workplace You Have: The Incumbency Effect in Preferences Toward Unions

November 2000: Bengt Holmstrom, MIT

  • Corporate Governance and Takeovers in the US: Making Sense of the 80s and 90s
  • Shortage and Waste of Liquidity

November 1999: George Akerlof, University of California, Berkeley

  • Economics and Identity

March 1999: Peter Howitt, Ohio State University

  • Innovation and Growth
  • The Emergence of Economic Organization

March 1997: Richard Blundell, University College London

  • Risk Sharing and Growth of Consumption
  • Reforming our Tax and Welfare System

March 1996: Jeffrey G. Williamson, Harvard University

  • Globalization and the Convergence of Nations: What Does History Tell Us?
  • Dealing with the Challenge of Globalization: A Long View

February 1995: Robin Boadway, Queen’s University

  • The Changing Face of Canadian Federalism: The Fiscal Dimension
  • Reforming Social Policy: Can the Federal Government Deliver?

September 1994: Ken Binmore, University College London

  • Playing Fair: Game Theory and the Social Contract
  • Squaring the Circle: Rational Cooperation in the Prisoners’ Dilemma

January 1994: Andrei Shleifer, Harvard University

  • Privatizing Russia I and Privatizing Russia II

March 1993: David M. Newbery, University of Cambridge

  • The Privatisation of the English Electricity Industry, The Transition in Eastern Europe
  • UK Energy Policy Versus EC Environmental Policy

November 1991: Oliver S. Hart, MIT

  • Recent Developments in the Theory of the Firm
  • The Modern Corporation: The Theory of its Financial Structure

February 1990: Paul Krugman, MIT

  • Thinking About the Debt Problem
  • Third World Debt: Their Problem or Ours?

March 1989: Thomas Schelling, Harvard University

  • Self-Command, A New Discipline
  • Strategic Arms Control: What Makes Sense?

January 1987: Paul Samuelson, MIT

  • Deterministic Chaos

March 1986: Partha Dasgupta, University of Cambridge

  • The Silent Food War

October 1985: Robert E. Hall, Stanford University

  • Tax Reform: The Flat Tax and the Current Debate
  • Monetary Reform: Deregulation with Price Stability?

February 1985: J. Culyer, University of York

  • The Withering of the Welfare State
  • Whither the Welfare State?

March 1983: Richard G. Lipsey, Queen’s University

  • The Great Anti-Inflation War, 1975-?: Part 1
  • The Great Anti-Inflation War, 1975-?: Part 2

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