The Asian Center, University of the Philippines Diliman will be hosting a public lecture, “The Commodity Export, Growth, and Distribution Connection in Southeast Asia, 1500–1940,” by Professor Jeffrey Gale Williamson, Ph.D. on 9 March 2016, 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. at the 2F, Seminar Room, Hall of Wisdom, GT-Toyota Asian Cultural Center, Asian Center, University of the Philippines Diliman. The lecture is free and open to the public; seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis.
About the Lecture
This lecture “explores Southeast Asia’s trade, growth, and inequality performance over the four and a half centuries from 1500 to 1940. It identifies the determinants of the commodity export performance – falling trade costs, income growth of its rich trading partners, and improved supply conditions at home. It also explores its impact on Southeast Asia’s growth performance: trade specialization generated more macro volatility, de-industrialization, rising colonial power, and greater inequality up to World War 1, but these forces turned around in the region thereafter, including some modest industrial catch-up. Finally, the paper elaborates on the distributional impact and colonial profitability of commodity export booms and busts throughout the last century.”
Organized by the UP Asian Center and the UP Third World Studies Center, this lecture is based on Professor Williamson’s chapter published in The Routledge Handbook of Southeast Asian Economics.
About the Speaker
Professor Jeffrey G. Williamson is Laird Bell Professor of Economics and Professor Emeritus at Harvard University and currently Visiting Professor at the School of Economics, University of the Philippines Diliman. An Honorary Fellow at the Department of Economics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, he has written several books on economics, including Globalization and the Poor Periphery before 1950 (MIT 2006), Trade and Poverty: When the Third World Fell Behind (MIT 2011), and The Cambridge History of Capitalism (2 vols. 2014: ed. with Larry Neal), among others. Professor Williamson also served as President of the Economic History Association (1994–1995), and Chairman of the Harvard Economics Department (1997–2000).
Photo: Poster announcing Professor Williamson's lecture at the UP Asian Center. The main image is titled "Penang Harbour, Penang" and was downloaded from the New York Public Library Digital Collections. View full image. Click on the poster to enlarge. Professor Williamson kindly provided his photograph.
The Asian Center offers M.A. degrees in Asian Studies with four fields of specialization: Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and West Asia. The Center also has an M.A. program in Philippine Studies that allows students to major in Philippine society and culture, Philippine foreign relations, or Philippine development studies. The Center offers a Ph.D. program in Philippine Studies in conjunction with the College of Arts and Letters and the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy. For an overview of these graduate programs, click here. The Asian Center also publishes Asian Studies: Journal of Critical Perspectives on Asia, the latest issue of which can be downloaded at the journal's website. View recent and upcoming Lectures & Conferences and read other News & Announcements. Join our mailing list to receive invitations to lectures, conferences, etc.