Yale Bulletin and Calendar

March 24, 2006|Volume 34, Number 23

Castle Lectures will explore the costs
and advantages of economic inequality

"Inequality: How Much Is too Much?" will be the theme of the 2006 Castle Lectures being presented March 27 and 28 and April 3 under the sponsorship of the Program in Ethics, Politics and Economics.

This year's featured speaker will be Christopher Jencks, the Malcolm Wiener Professor of Social Policy at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

In his lectures, Jencks will reflect on both the costs and advantages of economic inequality in contemporary Western societies. In reconsidering the social impact of egalitarian economic policies, he will take a critical look at liberal arguments for and conservative arguments against equality. Jencks will argue that both sides -- American conservatives who blame Europe's high unemployment and slow economic growth on its egalitarian economic policies, and liberals who invoke economic inequality to explain why Americans are more likely than Europeans to grow up in fatherless families, become teenage parents, commit violent crimes and die young -- are partly right. Too much economic inequality, he will claim, can have significant social and political costs, while too much equality can have significant economic costs.

The titles of his three lectures will be: Monday, March 27 -- "Does Economic Equality Reduce Growth, Poverty, or Both?"; Tuesday, March 28 -- "Can Economic Inequality Kill You?"; and Monday, April 3 -- "Economic Inequality vs. Democracy: How Can They Be Reconciled?" All three lectures will take place 4-5:30 p.m. in Rm. 211 of Linsly-Chittenden Hall, 63 High St. They are free and open to the public. A reception will follow each talk.

Jencks is co-author of "The Academic Revolution," "Inequality" and "Who Gets Ahead?" He is also the author of "Rethinking Social Policy" and "The Homeless." His recent publications have dealt with changes in the material standard of living over the past generation, welfare reform, poverty measurement, and changes in the influence of family background on children's economic prospects. His current research deals maily with the social consequences of economic inequality, including the impact of economic inequality on poverty, health, marriage and out-of-wedlock childbearing.

The Castle Lectures were endowed by John K. Castle to honor an ancestor, the Reverend James Pierpont, one of Yale's original founders. The lectures are intended to promote an awareness of and sensitivity to ethical issues facing individuals in modern American society. The Castle Lectures are published in book form by the Yale University Press.

For additional information, contact David Leslie at david.leslie@yale.edu.

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