Dear all, May I share my simple report from today's occasion, who knows some of you are interested with the issues. Sorry for cross-posting. Have a nice weekend.
Cheers, fau Today we have a memorial lecture from Prof. Gary S. Becker from the University of Chicago (UC). This is the second time for him to give his lecture in our university and more importantly, this time he does it in the context of receiving Doctor Honoris Causa from Hitotsubashi University. He has been giving some advises for the universities' cooperation and strategy since few years ago. Prof. Becker is a well-known behavioral-economist in the world, even though his contributions are not limited to, but the most imperative one, is economics of human capital. Receiving Phoenix Prize from the University of Chicago, a place where he has been teaching since 1970, has reinforced his position as a distinguished Nobel Laureate; only three professors in the UC have been awarded this honorary prize, although the UC has been hosting 78 Nobel Laureates so far. I was lucky; together with some fellows, we were invited by the President of the university to the honorary reception afterwards. Of course, we didn�t waste any time to shower him with many questions during the reception � and certainly, taking picture with him as well. Poor professor, he couldn�t touch any food at all, because he was busy to answer and give free advices to us *wink*. Ok, here is some of interesting comments from him: 1. On the debate which field should be prioritized in allocating budget for the developing countries facing limited fiscal space. I asked his opinion on the three sectors: technology development, macroeconomic stability, and basic education and health. He chose basic education and health (no surprise at all) and economic stability as main priority. Current technology should be chosen so as to best suit country needs, and one can expect that it will be developed to the later stage in accordance to the development of country�s economy. He also mentioned about combating KKN �after he learned where I come from *sigh*. 2. On the issue of measuring social contribution and intangible factors, he definitely advocates the approach of WTP (Willingness To Pay). He even said that �you haven�t learned modern economics until you feel comfortable with this concept�. (Well, I think I haven�t done yet then..) 3. China�s fixed exchange rate regime. He thinks that even though in the long run floating rate regime is the most suitable for China, current excellent economic achievements do not require it to be applied at this time. He believes that China would be able to manage it, should the policy be shifted; however, why should consider the policy which probably will give disruptive impact to the good economic performance? 4. China�s one child policy. I found that this one is interesting. He said that China should eliminate the policy for the following reasons: i) it interferes too much with the human�s rights. The government should spread knowledge about family planning and pay more attention to the women�s education and health status but leave to the person to decide how many children they want to give birth to, ii) China has bigger capacity to support and be supported by larger inhabitants. Taiwan has more densely population compare to that in China mainland, but has higher per capita income, iii) Aging population is faced by many developed countries nowadays, China will too if it continues the policy. He predicted that if the policy is abolished, the fertility rate in China will increase not so high but approximately to the level of about 2.1 from currently 1.8. 5. Brain drain. He strongly recommends that developing countries will be better off by sending more students to study abroad, even though some of them will not return immediately. Direct returnees can contribute immediately to the country, while late returnees considered as accumulating their human capital which will be a good asset when they�re going home. It will also give pressure to the government to improve internal situation so as to provide favorable environment for new reformers to contribute to the country�s development. 6. This one is from his lecture. A study shows that in India, the returns of male workers (aged 30-55) attended english-speaking school is double (=100% in 1990) and more than 100% (1995-2000) as compared to whom attended non-english-speaking school (Rosenzweig). Wow... There are some other points, including comments from Prof. Kotaro Suzumura (to whom I always have full respect), but I don�t think it�s appropriate for me to write down everything. Enough for now. Here is the useful links of his webpage and his blog. http://home.uchicago.edu/~gbecker/ http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/ -fau ___________________________________________________________ Does your mail provider give you FREE antivirus protection? Get Yahoo! Mail http://uk.mail.yahoo.com *************************************************************************** Berdikusi dg Santun & Elegan, dg Semangat Persahabatan. Menuju Indonesia yg Lebih Baik, in Commonality & Shared Destiny. www.ppi-india.org *************************************************************************** __________________________________________________________________________ Mohon Perhatian: 1. Harap tdk. memposting/reply yg menyinggung SARA (kecuali sbg otokritik) 2. Pesan yg akan direply harap dihapus, kecuali yg akan dikomentari. 3. Lihat arsip sebelumnya, www.ppi-india.da.ru; 4. Satu email perhari: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 5. No-email/web only: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 6. kembali menerima email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! 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