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Emily Oster, October 6, 2008 Clemens Lecture: “The Power of TV: Women’s Status in India and the Role of Cable Television.”
Emily Fair Oster received a B.A. and Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard (in 2002 and 2006 respectively). She moved to the University of Chicago where she is now a Becker Fellow, a two year position at the Becker Center on Chicago Price Theory. She has recently accepted a position in the Department of Economics at the University of Chicago.
Oster is perhaps most well-known for her PhD dissertation, "Hepatitis B and the Case of the Missing Women," in which she suggests that biology can be used to reveal the truth about the “missing-women” puzzle. Oster points to findings that areas with high Hep B rates tend to have higher male-to female birth ratios. The fact that Hep B can cause a woman to conceive male children more often than female, she says, accounts for a bulk of the "missing women" in Amartya Sen's famous 1990 essay, "More Than 100 Million Women Are Missing." Sen, on the other hand, attributed the "missing women" to societal discrimination against girls and women in the form of the allocation of health, educational and even food resources. The use of Hep B vaccine in 1982 led to a sharp decline in the male-to-female birth ratio, she notes in her dissertation.
Oster's Current Work focuses primarily on HIV in Africa
Clemens Lecture Series
The Clemens Lecture Series was founded to further conversation on the ways that economics can speak to the larger problems of our society and culture. It brings to Saint John's outstanding economists noted for their abilities to address the economic dimensions of social issues and to sustain dialogue with the other fields of the liberal arts. It also provides a valuable opportunity for students to meet both informally and in classes with the visiting lecturer. The lecture series is designed to be practically useful in understanding daily life and is intended for a wide audience, including students, faculty, the business and professional community and members of the general public interested in the impact of econimc issues in their lives.
The Clemens Chair in Economics and the Liberal Arts and the Clemens Lecture Series have been made possible by the generosity of William E. and Virginia Clemens.
Programs and Events
Index of Past Clemens Lecture Series events
2007 - Robert Frank, Clemens Lecture
Professor Frank is a monthly contributor to the "Economic Scene" column in The New York Times. Until 2001, he was the Goldwin Smith Professor of Economics, Ethics and Public Policy in Cornell's College of Arts and Sciences. He has also served as a Peace Corps volunteer in rural Nepal, chief economist for the Civil Aeronautics Board, fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences and was Professor of American Civilization at l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris. Frank's books include Choosing the Right Pond, Passions within Reason, Microeconomics and Behavior, Luxury Fever, and What Price the Moral High Ground? The Winner-Take-All Society, co-authored with Philip Cook, was named a Notable Book of the Year by The New York Times, and was included in Business Week's list of the ten best books for 1995. Frank holds a BS in mathematics from the Georgia Institute of Technology, an MA in statistics from UC Berkeley and a PhD in economics, also from UC Berkeley.
The Eighteenth Clemens Lecture was presented by Vernon W. Ruttan, on Monday, October 9, 2006.
Vernon W. Ruttan is a Regents' Professor Emeritus in the Departments of Economics and Applied Economics at the University of Minnesota. He attended Yale University (BA, 1948) and the University of Chicago (MA, 1950; Ph.D, 1952). Vernon Ruttan is one of the world's leading development economists, with more than 50 years of distinguished academic and non-academic experience in the United States and abroad. His academic background and experience includes some of the most prestigious universities in the U.S. Ruttan also has held key positions for many international organizations.
2006 - Is War Necessary For Economic Growth?
2005 - Can Foreign Aid Save Africa? by Dr. William Easterly
2004 - Does Big Government Hurt Economic Growth?, by Peter H. Lindert
2003 - Incentives, Insitutions and Divelopment Assistance, Michael Kremer
Dr. Michael Kremer received his Ph.D from Harvard University in 1992 and is currently Professor of Economics at Harvard and Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. Dr. Kremer previously served as a teacher in Kenya (1995-86), founded WorldTeach, a non-proft organization which places one hundred volunteer teachers annually in developing countries (1986-89) and taught at both the University of Chicago and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Kremer biography
2001 - Why Do We Consume So Much?, Juliet B. Schor
Labor economist Dr. Juliet B. Schor is currently Professor of Sociology at Boston College. Prior to joining Boston College, she taught economics at Harvard University for nine years. She has written extensively on work and consumption patterns in Americans. As one of the nation's best-known voices on the topic, she has received numerous honors. Schor biography
1999 - Uneconomic Growth: in Theory, in Fact, in History and in Relation to Globalization, Herman E. Daly
Dr. Herman E. Daly, the leading environmental economist in the United States today, is a Professor at the University of Maryland, School of Public Affairs. He is the author of a hundred scholarly articles and five books, including "Beyond Growth." Daly biography