
Rethinking keynesian fiscal stimulus
2 April - 1 hour 21 minsContributor(s): Professor Valerie Ramey | Join us for the 2025 Economica-Phillips Lecture which will be delivered by Valerie Ramey.
Starting in the 1930s, Keynesian fiscal stimulus was the leading policy tool for fighting recessions, but it subsequently fell out of favor with the discovery of the permanent income hypothesis and evidence for the effectiveness of monetary policy. However, Keynesian fiscal stimulus re-emerged as an important policy tool when interest rates hit the effective lower bound during the Global Financial Crisis. Most policymakers and many academics now believe that temporary transfers, infrastructure spending, and other types of government purchases and tax programs a...

Global dignity and seeing others: political and environmental recognition compared
Contributor(s): Professor Michèle Lamont | Join us for this lecture in which Michèle Lamont will discuss her book Seeing Others: How Recognition Works and How it Can Heal a Divided World. She will also discuss ongoing collaborative research on whether and how American and British young workers in the “two Manchesters” are searching for recognition through politics; how indigenous people in Canada and Micronesia are seeking recognition through environmental justice and jobs, and the challenge of seeking recognition where it is impossible to obtain.
1 hour 27 mins
1 April Finished

In conversation with Alexander Stubb
Contributor(s): Alexander Stubb | Join us for this special event with LSE alumnus and President of Finland Alexander Stubb. Cai-Göran Alexander Stubb is the 13th President of the Republic of Finland. His inauguration took place on 1 March 2024. During his career, Alexander Stubb has served as a member of the European Parliament, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Finland, Minister for European Affairs and Foreign Trade of Finland, Prime Minister of Finland and Finance Minister of Finland representing the National Coalition Party. He was also Chairman of the National Coalition Party from 2014 to 2016. Before his election as President of the Republic, Stubb was director and professor of School of Transnational Governance, European University Institute. Stubb is an enthusiastic friend of sports and literature.
51 mins
31 March Finished

Agents of change? The challenges of understanding empowerment through international development
Contributor(s): Professor Jo Sharp | Join us for the Sylvia Chant Lecture which this year will be delivered by Jo Sharp, Geographer Royal for Scotland. Over the 25 years that Professor Sharp has been working on international development projects, the concept of empowerment has become mainstreamed. As participatory approaches have become more commonplace, the focus has moved to people as the source of change. But how – and why – this change happens is not always so clear. This talk draws on two research collaborations: one with Bedouin women and local academics in Egypt’s south-eastern desert, and another with an interdisciplinary and international One Health project in northern Tanzania. Reflecting on these experiences, Professor Sharp will explore the assumptions we make about people’s abilities and desires to act as agents of change.
1 hour 27 mins
31 March Finished

The future of AI
Contributor(s): Dr Gary Marcus | Is Generative AI morally and technically inadequate? Can we separate the hype around AI from its real potential? Gary Marcus describes the current situation as a perfect storm of corporate irresponsibility, widespread adoption of AI tools, a lack of regulation and a huge number of unknowns. Marcus has a deep love for AI and its potential for humanity, for years he’s foreseen AI’s abilities and limitations well ahead of other experts – from anticipating current problems with driverless cars in 2016 to accurately predicting issues with ChatGPT-4 well before its release.
1 hour 28 mins
27 March Finished

From menarche to menopause: how reproductive histories shape women's health
Contributor(s): Professor Tiziana Leone | This inaugural lecture will look at key issues in the study of women’s health through the lens of reproductive histories, looking at both contingent and cumulated events to include physical and mental shocks such as conflict and disasters which would eventually have an impact later in life. The overview will start with the challenges of studying this topic in a low resource settings. It will then focus on key challenges and priorities in social science research from menarche to menopause and beyond going via key events such as abortion, maternal health care services in order to understand how women’s ageing process can be affected by their reproductive pathways.
1 hour 26 mins
27 March Finished