Professorial Inaugural Lecture, Prof. Tapas Mishra - Growth in a "Memory Lane"  Seminar

Such shocks work in intricate ways, propagating faster at times of heightened uncertainties and keeping low at times of relative stability, but seldom completely disappearing from a system’s core. The way shocks evolve and proliferate determine the trajectory of the whole gamut of socio-economic-environment system. In particular, the past century of theorisation and empirical design of economic growth of nations has unknowingly centred on the dynamic effects of shocks, duly modelled by the concept of memory, one that approximates the realm of psychology and has a strong root in the evolutionary theory. In this talk, I present theories of the origin of shocks and their modus operandi from a historical perspective and then demonstrate – by drawing on the advancement in the field, including my own decade of research – (i) how it is possible to still grow persistently and with stability, without fully eliminating shocks from a system, and (ii) how and why identification of true convergence patterns of shocks is important for identifying the nature of growth – endogenous or exogenous. The latter distinction has much to do with the way economies grow and policy interventions can control the trajectories of such growth processes. I present theory and evidence that it is the nature of the memory of shocks which govern the extent endogenous policy interventions are effective. I also discuss mechanisms which show that learning to co-move with some undying shocks in an economy is superior in terms of welfare achievements (it is the second-best solution). It is, summarily, a talk about the nuances, strategies and implications of a possible persistent growth of nations in the ‘memory’ lane.

 

Agenda

18:00: Registration, refreshments and networking (by the entrance of Building 2)

18:45: Keynote seminar (in room 3043)

19:30: Q & A

20:00: Event Close