Events 2008-2011

April 22, 2009
Persistent Poverty and Upward Mobility
4:30-6:00 p.m., 423 ILR Conference Center
Opening Remarks by President Skorton

Join us for the kick-off lecture for the ISS Persistent Poverty and Upward Mobility Theme Project. President Skorton will give opening remarks regarding the theme project's motivation. Christopher Barrett, team leader and professor of Applied Economics and Management, will discuss the team's key research questions, specific research projects, and public activities. Team members will be on hand for Q & A following the lecture.

Past Events

May 12, 2008
Poverty Traps and Social Protection
Sponsored by the AEM Seminar Series
Christopher Barrett, Team Leader and Stephen B. and Janice G. Ashley Professor of Applied Economics and Management
1:30 - 3:00 p.m., 401 Warren Hall

This paper demonstrates that there are potentially large returns to social protection policy that stakes out a productive safety net below the vulnerable and keeps them from slipping into a poverty trap. Much of the value of the productive safety net comes from mitigating the ex ante effects of risk and crowding in additional investment. The analysis also explores the implications of different mechanisms of targeting social protection transfers. In the presence of poverty traps, modestly regressive targeting based on critical asset thresholds may have better long-run poverty reduction effects than traditional needs-based targeting.

May 14, 2008
CAPE Business Meeting and Lecture by Int. Professor Christopher B. Barrett
1:30-2:30 p.m., Boyce Thompson Institute Auditorium

Public Lecture, Following Business Meeting
Following a reception and business meeting from 1:30 to 2:15, Professor Barrett will speak on Stimulating Agricultural and Rural Transformation in sub-Saharan Africa. Professor Barrett will discuss the necessity and prospects for igniting agricultural productivity improvements and rural transformation in Sub-Saharan Africa today, considering both food systems and the non-farm rural economy. This will focus primarily on Cote d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya and Madagascar, in particular, but will speak to regional issues more generally.