San Jose State University, Department of Economics
DAVID S. SAURMAN PROVOCATIVE LECTURE SERIES
presents:
Vernon L. Smith
Recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics for 2002
"Globalization, Freedom, and Human Betterment: Personal Versus Impersonal
Exchange"
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
4:45-6:45 P.M. (NOTE: The start time is half an hour earlier than usual.)
Morris Dailey Auditorium
STUDENTS, FACULTY, AND THE GENERAL PUBLIC ARE ALL WELCOME TO ATTEND.
Globalization is controversial. It confronts people with the social and
political challenge of living simultaneously in two different worlds:
personal versus impersonal exchange. Professor Smith exposes frequent
misunderstandings about how the rules of each world interact and collide.
Globalization is a contemporary expression of the ancient human capacity
for discovery, for economic and social development, for migration, trade,
and specialization. It is driven by human curiosity, diversity, innovation
and freedom. Freedom is associated with economic development, but that
does not mean that we know how to plan either freedom or development, from
the top down or from the outside in. Come and enjoy the reflections of a
Nobel laureate who in his own words muses that economic experiments "are a
window on the human career with close intellectual connections to
philosophy, science, anthropology, psychology, history and the classical
tradition of the Scottish Enlightenment. It's all great fun."
Vernon L. Smith was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2002 "for
having established laboratory experiments as a tool in empirical economic
analysis, especially in the study of alternative market mechanisms." He is
currently Professor of Economics and Law at George Mason University.
Professor Smith is also a research scholar in the Interdisciplinary Center
for Economic Science in Arlington, Virginia, and President of the
International Foundation for Research in Experimental Economics, which he
helped found in 1997. He has authored or co-authored over 250 articles and
books on capital theory, finance, natural resource economics, and
experimental economics. His books include PAPERS IN EXPERIMENTAL
ECONOMICS, BARGAINING AND MARKET BEHAVIOR, and the forthcoming RATIONALITY
IN ECONOMICS: CONSTRUCTIVIST AND ECOLOGICAL FORMS. He has held
appointments at: Purdue University, Stanford University, Brown University,
University of Massachusetts, University of Southern California, Cal Tech,
University of Arizona, and the University of Alaska-Anchorage.
This lecture is dedicated to our graduating students. Parents, friends and
family are welcome to meet the guest speaker and faculty at an open
reception outside the auditorium from 6:15 to 7:00 P.M.
ABOUT THE DAVID R. SAURMAN PROVOCATIVE LECTURE SERIES: The Department of
Economics invites students, faculty, and the general public to consider
intellectual arguments on controversial topics. Presenters in the
Provocative Lecture Series are noted for their outstanding scholarship and
public speaking ability. This lecture series fosters the tradition of
higher education to challenge ideas and develop critical thinking in an
environment of respect and intellectual discourse. Our goal is for you to
develop the critical thinking skills necessary to reach your own informed
position on controversial issues. We invite you to attend, to relax, to
ponder, and to enjoy the thought process. Obviously the views of the
speakers do not necessarily represent those of the University.