Robert E. Lucas Jr., the John Dewey Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago and a recipient of the Alfred Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 1995, will deliver the 10th Simon Kuznets Memorial Lectures on Wednesday and Thursday, Oct. 23-24. The lectures were established to honor the memory of the late Simon Kuznets, an earlier recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize and a pioneer in the use of statistics and economics to understand economic history and the process of modern economic growth. Kuznets also helped found Yale's Economic Growth Center in 1961.
Professor Lucas' lectures, titled "Industrial Revolution: Past and Future," will be presented both days 4-6 p.m. in the auditorium of Luce Hall, 34 Hillhouse Ave. They are free and open to the public.
Professor Lucas has taught at the University of Chicago since 1975. In its citation for his award, the Nobel Committee described his contributions in economics by saying, "Robert Lucas is the economist who has had the greatest influence on macroeconomic research since 1970. His work has brought about a rapid and revolutionary development: Application of the rational expectations hypothesis, emergence of an equilibrium theory of business cycles, insights into the difficulties of using economic policy to control the economy, and possibilities of reliably evaluating economic policy with statistical methods. In addition to his work in macroeconomics, Lucas' contributions have had a very significant impact on research in several other fields." His research has also had an impact on studies of economic growth and development, and more recent papers he has authored have provided insights into an understanding of the growth of East Asian countries and the evolution of income distribution. Professor Lucas is a fellow and first vice president of the Econometric Society, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.