> Renowned SFU economist to receive honorary degree
Renowned SFU economist to receive honorary degree
Contact: Marianne Meadahl, PAMR, 778.782.4323
October 2, 2007
SFU will honor one of its own when it bestows an honorary degree on renowned economist Richard Lipsey on Thursday, Oct. 4 at 9:45 a.m.
Lipsey, an SFU professor emeritus who helped spark the free trade debate of the 1980s, has spent half a century engaged in economic research and teaching.
Even though he retired a decade ago, Lipsey continues to work on key economic issues. He remains involved with the university’s Public Policy program and is currently designing research into coping with the effects of climate change.
“Much thought and effort has gone into alleviating the causes of climate change, but much less has gone into coping with the inevitable effects,” Lipsey says.
“Whatever the causes, human activity or natural climate variations, the effects will be dramatic and need to be forseen, and preparations need to be made to deal with them before it is too late.”
Lipsey is also studying how the great transforming technologies of the 19th and 20th centuries, such as electricity, internal combustion engines, computers and biotechnology, were financed by a mix of private and public efforts.
He wants to establish how much public support is needed for emerging new major technologies to get off the ground and examine the consequences when that support is neglected.
Lipsey also continues to develop models of economic growth sustained by transforming technologies. Such models can be fitted to data to help understand both the role of the technologies in sustaining economic growth, and the effects of public policy on their evolution.
Lipsey, an officer of the Order of Canada (1991), wrote An Introduction to Positive Economics in 1963. The book swept away old thinking about economic theory and changed the way the entire profession thought about its work.
His 2006 book, Economic Transformations: General Purpose Technologies looks at how technologies currently changing the world are affecting its economy.
Lipsey received the 2005 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) gold medal – its highest honor – for his lifetime of research.
Skeptic Ray Hyman, professor emeritus at the University of Oregon, and Stephen Jarislowsky, CEO of Jarislowsky, Fraser and Company, will also receive honorary degrees at Fall Convocation.
Lipsey, an SFU professor emeritus who helped spark the free trade debate of the 1980s, has spent half a century engaged in economic research and teaching.
Even though he retired a decade ago, Lipsey continues to work on key economic issues. He remains involved with the university’s Public Policy program and is currently designing research into coping with the effects of climate change.
“Much thought and effort has gone into alleviating the causes of climate change, but much less has gone into coping with the inevitable effects,” Lipsey says.
“Whatever the causes, human activity or natural climate variations, the effects will be dramatic and need to be forseen, and preparations need to be made to deal with them before it is too late.”
Lipsey is also studying how the great transforming technologies of the 19th and 20th centuries, such as electricity, internal combustion engines, computers and biotechnology, were financed by a mix of private and public efforts.
He wants to establish how much public support is needed for emerging new major technologies to get off the ground and examine the consequences when that support is neglected.
Lipsey also continues to develop models of economic growth sustained by transforming technologies. Such models can be fitted to data to help understand both the role of the technologies in sustaining economic growth, and the effects of public policy on their evolution.
Lipsey, an officer of the Order of Canada (1991), wrote An Introduction to Positive Economics in 1963. The book swept away old thinking about economic theory and changed the way the entire profession thought about its work.
His 2006 book, Economic Transformations: General Purpose Technologies looks at how technologies currently changing the world are affecting its economy.
Lipsey received the 2005 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) gold medal – its highest honor – for his lifetime of research.
Skeptic Ray Hyman, professor emeritus at the University of Oregon, and Stephen Jarislowsky, CEO of Jarislowsky, Fraser and Company, will also receive honorary degrees at Fall Convocation.