The famous Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz will receive from the Rector Francesco Ubertini the Sigillum Magnum of the University of Bologna, the highest honor of the Alma Mater, during an academic ceremony to be held on Friday 3 November at 17 pm in the Aula Absidale of Santa Lucia.
The event is promoted in collaboration with the Istituto Carlo Cattaneo research foundation, which has invited Stiglitz to the international scientific conference on inequality "Trends in inequality: social, economic and political issues", scheduled in Bologna from 2 to 4 November.
Now a professor at Columbia University, Joseph Stiglitz received the Nobel Prize in economics in 2001 (together with George Akerlof and Michael Spence) for his contribution on the theory of "asymmetries of information". This and other issues on which he concentrated - for example the calculation of labor costs in conditions of "sharecropping" or the conditions of inequality in the distribution of welfare indicators - made him a central figure among the most famous contemporary economists.
But Stiglitz is not just an eminent scholar. With great sensitivity and analytical skills, he has been able to look at the world's problems through the lens of his discipline, drawing universal ideas and solutions, dialoguing with other sciences and managing to make himself heard by everyone, well beyond the narrow academic sphere.
He studied "live" the conditions of the economy, both in advanced and developing countries, was economic adviser and chief economist of the World Bank and today, for his speeches on social and development policies, he is one of the best-known intellectuals globally.
His social sensitivity has made him a point of reference in the debate on globalization and the economic crisis: he is a critical voice and
attentive, listened to by governments as well as by international organizations, by the press and by popular movements. For all these reasons, the Alma Mater is ready to welcome him to Bologna, honoring him with the Sigillum Magnum. Entrance to the ceremony, in the Aula Absidale di Santa Lucia, is free subject to availability of seats.
