We hear a lot about the importance of a strong economy. But how do we know if the economy is doing well? Should we measure economic growth? Calculate human wellbeing? Examine whether individuals are free to make their own economic choices?

On February 21st, from 3:00 PM to 4:30 PM, the Abbey Speaker Series will host “How to Evaluate Economies?” in the Frank Porter Graham Student Union Auditorium. UNC public policy professor Douglas MacKay will moderate a discussion featuring Kaushik Basu (Cornell University), Carol Graham (Brookings Institution), and Robert Doar (American Enterprise Institute).

The event is co-sponsored with the Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) Program.

Join us for pizza in the lobby afterward!

Students who attend in-person can get CLE credit. No tickets are necessary. Seating is first-come-first serve, but we will reserve tickets for guests coming from outside Chapel Hill. Please email publicdiscourse@unc.edu for reserved seats.

Speaker Bios:

Kaushik Basu is a professor of economics and the Carl Marks Professor of International Studies at Cornell University. He served as Senior Vice President and Chief Economist of the World Bank from 2012 to 2016. Prior to that, he was Chief Economic Adviser to the Indian Government from 2009 to 2012. Basu has published widely in development economics, industrial organization, game theory, and welfare economics. His most recent book is The Republic of Beliefs: A New Approach to Law and Economics (Princeton University Press, 2018).

Robert Doar became the American Enterprise Institute’s 12th president in July 2019. While at AEI, he has served as a co-chair of the National Commission on Hunger and as a lead member of the AEI-Brookings Working Group on Poverty and Opportunity. Doar joined AEI in 2014 to lead the Institute’s opportunity and mobility studies program after serving for more than 20 years in leadership positions in the social service programs of New York state and New York City.

Carol Graham is a senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institute, a College Park Professor at the University of Maryland, and a Gallup Senior Scientist. She received Pioneer Awards from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in 2017 and 2021, as well as a Lifetime Distinguished Scholar award from the International Society of Quality-of-Life Studies in 2018. Graham has served twice as a vice president at Brookings, as Special Advisor to the Inter-American Development Bank, as a visiting fellow at the World Bank, and as a consultant to the International Monetary Fund. Her most recent book is The Power of Hope: How Wellbeing Science Can Save Us from Despair (Princeton, 2023).

Douglas MacKay (moderator) is a professor in UNC’s public policy department. His research and teaching interests focus on questions at the intersection of justice and public policy. He is currently working on projects concerning the justice of economic inequality—both domestic and global—the ethics of immigration policy, priority setting in health care, the ethics of international clinical research, and justice in the division of responsibilities within federal systems of government.

Date: February 21, 2025

Times: 3:00PM – 4:30 pm

Audience: Public Event

Venue: Frank Porter Graham Student Union Auditorium