Jayati Ghosh, University of Massachusetts Amherst6:30 pm - 7:30 pm
July 25, 2023
Salon 6-10
"Hunger and global finance: What is the link?"
Description of Lecture:
Eliminating hunger is one of the most important Sustainable Development Goals, yet it is proving to be stubbornly hard to achieve, with recent reversals of progress. This is not simply because of food availability. Rather, worsening wage incomes and livelihoods in large parts of the world have been compounded by rapid food price increases that are not driven by supply. The links between global financial markets and access to food for the most vulnerable populations will be explored in this lecture. These include the impact of financial speculation in commodity futures markets; capital flows and their effects on currency depreciation in food-importing countries; and external debt stresses that impact on governments’ ability to provide compensatory social protection to reduce hunger.
Professor of Economics
Jayati Ghosh taught economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi for nearly 35 years, and since January 2021 she has been Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA. She has authored and/or edited 20 books and more than 200 scholarly articles. Recent books include “The making of a catastrophe: Covid-19 and the Indian economy,” Aleph Books forthcoming 2022; “When governments fail: Covid-19 and the economy,” Tulika Books and Columbia University Press 2021 (co-edited); “Women workers in the informal economy,” Routledge 2021 (edited); “Never Done and Poorly Paid: Women’s Work in Globalising India,” Women Unlimited, New Delhi 2009; co-edited “Elgar Handbook of Alternative Theories of Economic Development, 2014; co-edited “After Crisis,” Tulika 2009; co-authored “Demonetisation Decoded,” Routledge 2017. She has received several prizes, including the 2015 Adisheshaiah Award for distinguished contributions to the social sciences in India; the International Labour Organisation’s Decent Work Research Prize for 2011; and the NordSud Prize for Social Sciences 2010, Italy. She has advised governments in India and other countries, including as Chairperson of the Andhra Pradesh Commission on Farmers’ Welfare in 2004, and Member of the National Knowledge Commission of India (2005-09). She was the Executive Secretary of International Development Economics Associates (www.networkideas.org), an international network of heterodox development economists, from 2002 to 2021. She has consulted for international organizations including ILO, UNDP, UNCTAD, UN-DESA, UNRISD and UN Women and is member of several international boards and commissions, including the UN High-Level Advisory Board on Economic and Social Affairs, the Commission on Global Economic Transformation of INET, the International Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation (ICRICT). In 2021 she was appointed to the WHO Council on the Economics of Health for All, chaired by Mariana Mazzucato. In March 2022, she was appointed to the UN Secretary General’s High-Level Advisory Board on Effective Multilateralism, mandated to provide a vision for international cooperation to deal with current and future challenges. She also writes regularly for popular media, including newspapers, journals and blogs.