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Humanitas Visiting Professorship in Economic Thought

Partha Dasgupta

8 - 10 May 2012
University of Oxford

Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta is a distinguished economist and Frank Ramsey Professor Emeritus at the University of Cambridge, and was appointed as the inaugural Humanitas Visiting Professor in Economic Thought in 2011-12.

In his opening lecture, entitled ‘Time and the Generations’ Professor Dasgupta gave an overview of the process by which we assess economic performance and prescribe policy remedies. He elaborated on each step along with the history of the development of methods, focusing on the issue of sustaining human well-being across the generations.

His lecture set the stage for the following workshops and seminars entitled ‘Discounting Climate Change’ and ‘The Idea of Personhood in Intergenerational Wellbeing’, where Professor Dasgupta gave a much more detailed view of the analytics of assessing economic performance and prescribing remedies for a more specialised audience. He was joined by Professor Sir Robert Watson, DEFRA Chief Scientific Advisor and Professor of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia, and Professor John Broome, White’s Professor of Moral Philosophy, University of Oxford, who each gave a masterclass. Professor Watson’s masterclass focused on the implementation of Professor Dasgupta’s assessment and policy approaches in the context of the UK government climate-change policy. Professor Watson was uniquely qualified to lead this class given his work as Chief Scientific Adviser to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Professor Broome’s masterclass explored the theme from a philosophical and moral perspective.

On the last day of his tenure, Professor Dasgupta held an open office for students in All Souls, which gave them the opportunity to have one-to-one discussions with him on more specific topics relevant to their own research and studies.

To view other videos from Professor Dasgupta's series, visit ISD's YouTube Channel.

View photos on ISD's Flickr Channel.

Click here to view the poster of the series.

The Humanitas Visiting Professorship in Economic Thought has been made possible by the generous support of Donald Marron.