Economist Robert Shiller will speak at U-M April 18

DATE: 7 p.m. April 18, 2012

EVENT: Noted economist and University of Michigan alumnus Robert Shiller will present a public lecture, "Finance and the Good Society." In his latest book by the same name, Shiller argues that, rather than condemning finance, we need to reclaim it for the common good.

Shiller is the Arthur M. Okun Professor of Economics at and professor of finance and fellow at the International Center for Finance at Yale University. He received his bachelor’s degree in economics from U-M in 1967 and his Ph.D. in economics from MIT in 1972. He has written on financial markets, financial innovation, behavioral economics, macroeconomics, real estate, statistical methods, and on public attitudes, opinions and moral judgments regarding markets.

His repeat-sales home price indices, developed originally with Karl Case, are now published as the Standard & Poor’s/Case Shiller Home Price Indices. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange now maintains futures markets based on these indices. He is co-founder of MacroMarkets LLC.

Shiller has been a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research since 1980 and co-organizer of NBER workshops since 1991. He served as vice president of the American Economic Association in 2005 and president of the Eastern Economic Association in 2006. He writes a column, "Finance in the 21st Century," for Project Syndicate, which publishes around the world, and an "Economic View" column for the New York Times.

His books include: "Market Volatility," "Macro Markets: Creating Institutions for Managing Society’s Largest Economic Risks," "Irrational Exuberance," "The New Financial Order: Risk in the 21st Century," "Subprime Solution: How the Global Financial Crisis Happened and What to Do about It," "Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy and Why It Matters for Global Capitalism," co-authored with George Akerlof, and "Finance and the Good Society."

PLACE: Askwith Auditorium, Lorch Hall. 611 Tappan St., Ann Arbor

SPONSOR: U-M Department of Economics