Nobel Laureate Prof Paul Krugman delivers SKBI public lecture

Professor Paul Krugman (left) and Professor Jun Yu (Director, Sim Kee Boon Institute for Financial Economics) during the Question & Answer Session.

On US election day, Professor Paul Krugman admitted that the imminent announcement of the election result might be a slight distraction for everyone, himself included, when he spoke at SMU’s Mochtar Riady Auditorium on 7 October. However, the audience gave their full attention to his engaging delivery of the lecture entitled “Global Economic Outlook – Preventing the next crisis”, and Prof Krugman offered some timely economic advice for whoever won the election.

Professor Krugman received the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2008 for his analysis of trade patterns and location of economic activity in the fields of international and regional economics. He is also professor of economics at Princeton University, a regular Op-Ed columnist for The New York Times, was awarded the American Economic Association’s John Bates Clark medal for his work on international trade and is the author of more than twenty books.

After a stimulating hour, which was full of challenging ideas and opinions, Professor Jun Yu, Director of the Sim Kee Boon Institute for Financial Economics (SKBI), invited questions from the audience and the viewers who had been watching the webcast. There were queues at the microphones in the auditorium and a long list of additional questions were sent in my phone text messaging. Professor Krugman gave insightful answers to several searching questions, until he was beaten by the clock when the allocated time was up.

The lecture was organised by the Sim Kee Boon Institute for Financial Economics (SKBI) which seeks to pioneer and promote the study of financial economics and financial econometrics in areas of strategic relevance to Singapore's economy and the economies of the region.