We are pleased to announce an Inaugural Lecture to be given by Paul Collier, Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government. Professor Collier will address the topic: 'Why social science should integrate culture and how to do it".

The lecture will present some recent innovations in economics, psychology, and economic history that are converging to rehabilitate culture as a legitimate element of analysis. Culture matters, and its evolution is amenable to formal scientific analysis. But these processes need not be benign: there is no equivalent to the invisible hand of the market, guiding a culture toward social optimality. An organizational culture can trap a vital public agency such as a tax administration, into severe dysfunction, stymying national economic development. Such cultural explanations of persistent poverty contrast with the standard political economy account in terms of the rational behaviour of self-serving elites. Although that account has enabled major advances, it struggles to provide a plausible analysis of the most egregious instances of sociopolitical dysfunction. The new formal scientific analysis of culture points to new policy instruments and a new agenda for quantitative research.

The lecture is free and open to the public, but registration has reached capacity. 

The event will be streamed live and recorded on the Blavatnik School of Government YouTube channel.

A brief note to clarify that even though Professor Collier has been with the School since its very beginning, it is only now that we are in our permanent home that we are able to organise the official Inaugural Lectures for our academics.

Image: John Cairns