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BMO Public Lecture Series
The TING & BMO Public Lecture series is an annual event hosted by SFU's Department of Economics with the generous sponsorship of the David & Cecilia Ting Foundation and the BMO Bank of Montreal. Lectures are presented by some of the top minds and scholars in economics, with the aim of engaging the general public on issues that pertain to economics but have a direct impact on their daily lives.
DAVID & CECILIA TING 2026 BMO PUBLIC LECTURE
Economic and Social Well-being of Indigenous Children: Insights from Recent Research
Abstract
How does poverty affect the long-run outcomes for Indigenous children? How can changes in household conditions affect various dimensions of well-being? In this talk, Randall Akee, Professor of Indigenous Governence and Development at the Harvard Kennedy School, will share an broad overview of recent research that seeks to answer these questions. The research focused on American Indian and other Indigenous Peoples children using a combination of administrative and survey-based data.
Dr. Akee will also examine how intergenerational mobility differs for American Indians and other groups in the U.S and summarize some data on differences in mortality for First Nations’ children and that of non-natives in Canada.
SPEAKER
Randall Kekoa Akee is the Julie Johnson Kidd Professor of Indigenous Governance and Development at the Harvard Kennedy School. Previously he was a Professor in the Department of Public Policy and American Indian Studies at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles), where he served as the Chair of the American Indian Studies Department. Dr. Akee completed his doctorate at Harvard University in June 2006, is an applied microeconomist, and has worked in the areas of Labor Economics, Economic Development and Migration. He spent several years working for the State of Hawaii Office of Hawaiian Affairs Economic Development Division. Previously, he served as a David M. Rubenstein Fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution and has served on the University of California Office of the President’s Native American Advisory Council.
Dr. Akee also served on the National Advisory Council on Race, Ethnic, and Other Populations at the US Census Bureau. For the year 2022-2023, Dr. Akee served as a Senior Economist in the Council of Economic Advisers in the Office of the White House working on Labor and Social Inclusion topics. Dr. Akee also conducted work for the US Census Bureau focusing on the Statistical Products First initiative. Currently, Dr. Akee is a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) in Labor Studies and the Children’s Groups.
Past Lectures
- 2022 Philip Oreopoulos (University of Toronto)
- 2020 Janet Currie (Princeton)
- 2019 Nava Ashraf (LSE)
- 2018 Susan Athey (Stanford)
- 2017 Nathan Nunn (Harvard)
- 2016 Raj Chetty (Harvard)
- 2015 Alvin Roth (Harvard, Nobel Prize recipient 2012)
- 2014 Vernon Smith (Chapman University, Nobel Prize recipient 2002)
- 2013 Richard Blundell (University College London)
- 2013 Ross Levine (Berkeley Haas)
- 2012 Jim Bullard (President, St Louis Federal Reserve Bank)
- 2010 Esther Duflo (MIT, Nobel Prize recipient 2019)
- 2009 Daron Acemoglu (MIT, Nobel Prize recipient 2024)
- 2008 David Levine (Washington University, St Louis)