Economist Mark Setterfield to deliver Common Hour Lecture

What: Mark Setterfield, professor of economics, will deliver a lecture entitled, “Gender Inequality and Steady State Growth Paths.” His talk is co-sponsored by the Faculty Research Committee and the Common Hour Events Committee.

When: Thursday, April 23 from 12:15 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Where: Rittenberg Lounge in Mather Hall on the Trinity campus.

Background: Some would argue that if women in developing countries work in cost-sensitive, export-oriented industries, then raising women’s wages to reduce gender inequality could reduce growth. That could be an obstacle to advocating for increased wages for women on the basis of equity.

However, Setterfield will show that even if increasing gender wage equality does reduce growth, lower growth can be an unequivocally good thing – even in economies whose low standards of living make rapid growth desirable. The result, asserts Setterfield, is a win-win situation, where increased equality goes hand-in-hand with improved growth performance, making it easier to advocate for increased gender equality as an end in itself.

Setterfield, a member of Trinity’s faculty since 1992, has held visiting positions at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell; CEPREMAP in Paris; Downing College in Cambridge, England; and Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada. He is an Associate Member of the Cambridge Centre for Economic and Public Policy at Cambridge University and a Senior Research Associate at the International Economic Policy Institute at Laurentian University in Canada.

Lunch will be provided. To reserve a bag lunch, please email common-hour@trincoll.edu.