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Building the economy of the future

Economist and author Dr Diane Coyle will discuss how to build the economy of the future in a keynote speech at the University of York on Monday 27 February 2012.

Dr Coyle, who runs the consultancy Enlightenment Economics and is Vice Chair of the BBC Trust, will deliver the Joseph Rowntree Foundation Lecture at the University’s Berrick Saul building.

Awarded an OBE in 2009, Dr Coyle specialises in competition policy, network markets, the economics of new technologies and globalisation, including extensive work on the impacts of mobile telephony in developing countries.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation Lecture is an annual public lecture, co-hosted by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the University of York's School of Politics, Economics and Philosophy. It is aimed at significantly advancing research and public understanding in the areas of welfare, poverty and social justice. This is the fifth co-hosted annual lecture.

Since the onset of the financial crisis, which seems to defy all attempts to bring it to an end, a growing number of people have begun to question the fundamentals of an economic system that has benefited only the rich minority.

Dr Diane Coyle

In this year’s lecture, Dr Coyle will argue for substantial institutional reform on a scale not seen since Victorian times.

Dr Coyle says: "Since the onset of the financial crisis, which seems to defy all attempts to bring it to an end, a growing number of people have begun to question the fundamentals of an economic system that has benefited only the rich minority."

"It would be a mistake to conclude that economic growth itself is the problem, however. The trends which have brought about the present instability and inequality are technological and political, as well as financial, and have deep roots. To address them will require substantial institutional reform."

Dr Coyle is a member of the Migration Advisory Committee, and for eight years, until 2009, was a member of the Competition Commission. She is a Visiting Professor at the University of Manchester.

She is the author of several books, including The Economics of Enough (2011), The Soulful Science (2007), Sex, Drugs and Economics (2002), Paradoxes of Prosperity (2001), Governing the World Economy (2000) and The Weightless World (1997).

She was formerly a regular presenter on BBC Radio 4's Analysis and the Economics Editor of The Independent.

Admission to the lecture in the Bowland Auditorium, Berrick Saul Building is by free ticket only. Please note that this lecture is fully booked.

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