Globalisation expert gives Joseph Fisher lecture

Thursday, 10 April 2008

One of the world's leading experts on globalisation and its economic effects will be at the University of Adelaide tonight to present the 52nd Joseph Fisher public lecture.

Harvard University's Professor Jeffrey Williamson is well-known internationally for his work on economic history but his influence has spread to a broad range of economic fields, including international and development economics.

Tonight he will talk on 'Globalisation and the Great Divergence', discussing how volatile prices of primary commodities (agriculture and minerals) have affected the economic growth rates of primary-exporting countries over the past three centuries, and the implications for the differences in living standards between countries rich in natural resources and others.

The Joseph Fisher lecture, organised by the University's School of Economics, has been presented at the University almost every second year since 1904.

Funds for the lectures and a medal for the top accounting student each year were provided by an endowment to the University in 1903 by prominent Adelaide businessman Joseph Fisher.

Professor Williamson was Chairman of the Harvard Economics Department from 1997 to 2000 and has been the Laird Bell Professor of Economics at Harvard since 1984. He has been highly awarded as a teacher of economics and has researched and written extensively on globalisation issues over the long term, publishing 25 books and many articles in leading journals.

He has been associated with the World Bank since 1976 and is currently a Research Fellow with the London-based Centre for Economic Policy Research.

The 2008 Joseph Fisher lecture is a free public lecture, to be held at 6pm, Thursday 10 April, Napier Building, Lecture Room 102, University of Adelaide. All welcome.

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