‘Work, Families and Public Policy’ to begin Jan. 31

Faculty and graduate students from St. Louis-area universities with an interest in topics relating to labor, households, health care, law and social welfare are being invited to take part in a series of Monday brown-bag luncheon seminars to be held biweekly through April at Washington University.

Now in its ninth year, the “Work, Families and Public Policy” series features one-hour presentations on research interests of faculty from local and national universities.

Presentations will be from noon-1 p.m. in Eliot Hall, Room 300, and will be followed by a half-hour discussion period.

Robert A. Pollak, Ph.D., the Hernreich Distinguished Professor of Economics in Arts & Sciences and the Olin School of Business, has been the lead organizer of the series for the past eight years.

The co-organizer is Michael W. Sherraden, Ph.D., the Benjamin E. Youngdahl Professor of Social Development and director of the Center for Social Development in the George Warren Brown School of Social Work.

The series is designed to promote interdisciplinary research. The presentations are listed below.

  • Jan. 31: Steven Stern, Ph.D., the Merrill Bankard Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Virginia, will speak on “Formal Home Health Care, Informal Care, and Family Decision Making.”
  • Feb. 14: V. Joseph Hotz, Ph.D., professor and chair of the Department of Economics at the University of California, Los Angeles, will discuss “Did the Returns to the Early School and Work Experiences of Young Adults Change Over the Last 40 Years?”
  • Feb. 28: Anita Bernstein, J.D., the Sam Nunn Professor Of Law at Emory University, will focus on the question “Why Marriage?”
  • March 14: David Card, Ph.D., professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley, will examine “The Effect of Nearly Universal Health Insurance on Health Utilization and Health: Evidence From Medicare.”
  • March 28: Lena C. Edlund, Ph.D., associate professor of economics at Columbia University, will discuss “The Wealth of Women.”
  • April 11: Glenn Loury, Ph.D., professor of economics at Boston University, will speak on “Toward an Economic Theory of Dysfunctional Identity.”
  • April 25: Sebastian Galiani, Ph.D., professor of economics at the University of San Andres, will discuss “Pre-primary School Attendance and Maternal Labor Supply: Evidence From a School Construction Program.”

The series is sponsored by the Olin School; the School of Social Work and the Center for Social Development; the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in the School of Law; the Department of Economics; the Center for Health Policy; and the College of Arts & Sciences.

The classroom is courtesy of the Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy in Arts & Sciences.

For more information, go online to www.olin.wustl.edu/links and click on the “Academic Seminars” link on the right.

For additional information, contact Pollak (935-4918; pollak@wustl.edu) or Sherraden (935-6691; sherrad@wustl.edu).