Fellow to explore finance’s contribution to inequality

4 December 2014

Visiting Fellow to explore finance’s contribution to inequality

The question of whether banks do more harm than good will be the focus of a public lecture by this year’s Reserve Bank Professorial Fellow in Monetary and Financial Economics.

American economist Ross Levine will be in New Zealand for two weeks from Monday 8 December to Friday 19 December, with support from Victoria University of Wellington and the Reserve Bank of New Zealand. During his stay he will present a public lecture titled ‘Finance, Opportunity and Inequality’.

In the lecture, Professor Levine will re-evaluate the evidence on the social productivity of the financial system, addressing the critical belief that finance is a major cause of growing inequality of opportunity.

“Is the financial system simply a casino where the rich come to place their bets, suggesting that policymakers need to protect us from their recklessness? Or, is finance important to society, even to those that never issue a bond, purchase a stock, or receive a loan, suggesting that policymakers need to do much more than protect us from financial crises?,” asks Professor Levine.

“My lecture will use evidence from around the world to demonstrate the importance financial systems—and financial policies—for shaping economic prosperity.”

Professor Levine’s research focuses on the linkages between financial sector policies, the operation of financial systems and the functioning of the economy. He is the Willis H. Booth Chair in Banking and Finance at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Milken Institute, Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a member of the European Systemic Risk Board’s Advisory Scientific Committee, and on the Steering Committee of the Hoover Institution’s Working Group on Intellectual Property, Innovation and Prosperity.

Professor Levine will spend a week at Victoria University and a week at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand. During this time he will present a number of seminars and workshops.

What: Finance, Opportunity and Inequality, presented by Ross Levine, Reserve Bank Professorial Fellow in Monetary and Financial Economics
Date: Wednesday, 17 December 2014
Reception: 5.30-6pm
Lecture: 6-7pm (including questions)
Venue: Lecture Theatre 1 Government Buildings, 55 Lambton Quay (opposite the Beehive), Wellington
RSVP: Email deborah.osullivan@vuw.ac.nz with “Levine” in the subject line or phone 04- 463 7431 by 5pm, Monday 15 December.

ENDS

© Scoop Media