General Biology

Conversations host Harry Kreisler welcomes Nobel Laureate Michael Spence for a discussion of his new book, The Next Convergence. Professor Spence discusses his intellectual odyssey focusing on his Nobel Prize research on information and market structure. He then explains how his work as Chairman of the Commission on Growth and Development led him to write his new book. Tracing the impact of the internet, globalization, and domestic and international policy on the trajectory of economic growth in the emerging economies, he highlights the implications of the resulting high speed economic growth for the global economy and global governance. Professor Spence also discusses how the advanced economies should respond to the changing balance of economic power and the 2008 economic collapse focusing on the policy choices confronting the American economy. Throughout the discussion, he emphasizes the implications for political leaders navigating the transitions in emerging economies, advanced economies and in global governance structures. http://conversations.berkeley.edu