Zedillo presents lectureships honoring the lives of two global economists

Professor Ernesto Zedillo, the Frederick Iseman ’74 Director of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization and former president of Mexico, was invited to deliver the Mahbub-ul-Haq Memorial Lecture at Georgetown University on Sept. 11, and the inaugural Ma Yinchu Memorial Lecture at Tianjin University on Oct. 2.
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Ernesto Zedillo (right) gave the inaugural Ma Yinchu Memorial Lecture at Tianjin University, China.

Professor Ernesto Zedillo, the Frederick Iseman ’74 Director of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization and former president of Mexico, was invited to deliver the Mahbub-ul-Haq Memorial Lecture at Georgetown University on Sept. 11, and the inaugural Ma Yinchu Memorial Lecture at Tianjin University on Oct. 2.

The Mahbub-ul-Haq Memorial Lecture honors the Pakistani economist and finance minister who founded the Human Development Report, published annually by the United Nations.

In his talk, titled “Tales from Latin America and Africa: Growing Policy Challenges at a Time of Vanishing Tailwinds,” Zedillo observed that the recent period of significant improvements in key social indicators in regions such as Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa have been driven — not exclusively but significantly — by better terms of trade and by the adoption of effective social policies.

Zedillo argued that such improvements, in the absence of more ambitious structural reforms, could stall or even be reversed now that the commodity super-cycle is over. He said that the impact of innovative social programs has entered a diminishing returns phase in some cases, while others are at risk of being interrupted because of fiscal reasons.  

At a celebration in Tianjin, China, honoring Tianjin University’s 120th anniversary and the opening of a new campus, Zedillo spoke about “The New Normal – in China and Everywhere: Opportunity for Better Global Governance?” His talk was the inaugural Ma Yinchu Memorial Lecture honoring the noted Chinese economist who received an M.A. from Yale in 1910 and was the president of Peking University from 1951 to 1960.

During his visit to Tianjin University, Zedillo was awarded an honorary professorship from that institution, the oldest university in China.

At Yale, in addition to directing the Center for the Study of Globalization, Zedillo teaches a fall undergraduate seminar on “Debating Globalization” and a spring seminar on “The Economic Evolution of the Latin American and Caribbean.”

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