In a previous post, I mentioned in passing that Jagdish Bhagwati came to Carleton last week. He gave a number of speeches directly to students. He also took on an interview with the Carleton Radio Forum on Friday morning (probably a rather hostile audience, really).

I have to applaud him for going to such lengths to address students and to get his message across. More importantly, he gave an excellent interview. Some of the questions he addresses:

• What is the role of pure theory in Economics?  What is the role of public policy?
• How do Economists separate positive and normative thought? Is this actually feasible?
• What are the practical limits of utilitarian theory in Economics? Should we care?
• Why is Peter Singer wrong on globalization?
• Do distributional issues matter? Why? How can Economists help to address them?
• How has the consensus on globalization changed over time?

To those who were unable to hear his speeches on campus, to skeptics of the modern field of Economics, or to those that simply want to know more about what goes into modern Economic thought, I think you’ll find this to be a fascinating interview.

You can access and download the interview on the KRLX site. Alternatively, you can listen to it directly here:

Posted on April 25th, 2006 by Lee
Filed under: Uncategorized