March 30, 2016

Mattersdorff-Steinhardt Lecture 2016- Unequal Chances or Unequal Abilities: What determines social mobility?

The lecturer was Dr. Gregory Clark a professor of Economics at UC Davis and a Research Associate at the Center for Poverty Research.
The lecturer was Dr. Gregory Clark, a professor of Economics at UC Davis and a Research Associate at the Center for Poverty Research. His talk on February 18th at Lewis & Clark College focused on the tracking of surnames throughout many years to see if social status changed over time. His work has showed that social status is actually incredibly persistent.
 
Dr. Clark is the author of numerous scholarly articles and two recent bestselling books “A Farewell to Alms” and “The Son Also Rises” (both from Princeton Press). Dr. Clark works on issues related to long run economic growth and development. His current work focuses on rates of social mobility in historical societies as well as a cross section of contemporary societies. His work also considers the sources of social mobility, especially as they relate to the unequal distribution of access to economic opportunity. 
Dr. Clark’s recent books have been reviewed in the New York Times, the Financial Times, Forbes, Science, The Atlantic, Newsweek, the New York Review of Books as well as in numerous scholarly outlets. Clark has published widely in popular press outlets including the PBS Newshour, The Guardian, The New York Times,  and The LA Times. He appears on television and speaks regularly, including a talk on social mobility to the Royal Society of Arts in London.