Professor Lord Desai Talks about his latest book ‘Hubris’ at Punjab University

Lahore: Speaking at Punjab University’s Pakistan Study Centre, the eminent member of the British House of Lords, Desai explained that in his 50 years as an economist, change in the culture of academic economics has been witnessed. “It abandoned empirical habits of studying the economic reality and became wedded to aprioristic reasoning,” he said.

Lord Desai, an Indian born British politicians, and active British Labour Party member of the House of Lords was invited by Punjab University’s Pakistan Study Centre to speak on his latest book ‘Hubris.’ Director Pakistan Study Centre Prof. Dr. Massarrat Abid welcomed the British member of the House of Lords, who has written extensively covering a vast variety of subjects from film star Dilip Kumar to applied econometrics. Professor Emeritus Lord Desai was accompanied by his wife Kishwar Desai and Amina Sayyid of Oxford University Press. Meghnad Desai is Professor Emeritus at London School of Economics. The talk was given at a packed auditorium.

Lord Desai dwelled upon the complex interaction between diverse macroeconomic and micro economic variables, which produces both the stationary market equilibrium and dynamic disequilibrium system. He said the ever changing behavior of prices, wages, credit, profits, investment and employment generated economic cycles both for the short term (7-8 years) and the long term (30-40 years). He said the crisis of 2007-08 was also the outcome of all these myriad factors and the contemporary waves of globalization spearheaded by establishment of WTO in 1994 had further added to the intricacies and complexity of business cycles which could not be captured or predicted even by the most sophisticated econometric models developed in recent years.

Prof. Dr. Aqdas Ali Kazmi analyzed the main theme of the book, pointing out that the book provides a full length answer to the question as why economic failed to predict the crisis of 2007-08. In the discussion session, Professor Lord Desai answered various questions put forward by the students and the participants. A book signing ceremony was also held at the end of the session.