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K-State Today

April 16, 2015

Annual Economics Club debate today

Submitted by Dan Kuester

The Kansas State University Economics Club will host its third annual debate on current economic issues at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, April 16, in Town Hall at the Leadership Studies Building. The event is free and open to the public, but because of limited seating a free ticket should be picked up in 327 Waters Hall or from an Economics Club officer. A ticket is required for admittance.

The club elected to host a discussion on income inequality this year and the speakers are nationally renowned. The formal title of the debate is "Should We Be Worried About Rising Inequality in Developed Countries" and the featured speakers are David Autor from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Kevin Murphy from the University of Chicago. Both of our speakers have been recently quoted in The Wall Street Journal about this subject.

David Autor, one of the leading labor economists in the world and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, is a professor and associate department head of MIT's Department of Economics. He also is a faculty research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research and editor in chief of the Journal of Economic Perspectives. His current fields of specialization include human capital and earnings inequality, labor market impacts of technological change and globalization, disability insurance and labor supply, and temporary help and other intermediated work arrangements. Autor received a bachelor's degree in psychology from Tufts University and a doctorate in public policy at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.

Kevin Murphy, a fellow of the Econometric Society and an elected member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, was a John Bates Clark medalist in 1997. He has received fellowships from the Earhart Foundation, the Sloan Foundation and the Friedman Fund.

Murphy also is the author of two books and many academic articles. His writing has been published in numerous mainstream publications, including the Boston Globe, the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune and the Wall Street Journal. His work includes two articles co-authored by Nobel laureate Gary Becker. Murphy earned his doctorate in 1986 from the University of Chicago after graduating from the University of California, Los Angeles with a bachelor's degree in economics in 1981. He joined the University of Chicago faculty in 1984.