Alternating with the Maurice Allais Prize for Economics, the Maurice Allais Foundation under the aegis of the Mines Paris Foundation has decided to organize, every second year, meetings between academic figures and high level economic decision-makers in charge of public policy, or of private or public enterprise, in order to provide fuller information to all concerned about the course and the future of our economic and social world.
These Maurice Allais Workshops faithfully continue Professor Allais’s scientific approach, for he constantly encouraged dialogue between economic theorists and practitioners, especially under the auspices of the Groupe de Recherches Économiques et Sociales, (G.R.E.C.S.) which he chaired from 1945 to 1969 (click here for further information).
They will be devoted to themes of great significance for our XXIst century economies, many of them already broached in Maurice Allais’s writings. Thus the Maurice Allais Workshops will contribute to spreading knowledge of the works of the 1988 Nobel Economics laureate and will draw inspiration from them to nourish reflection about today’s economic debates.
Maurice Allais Workshop 2022
Friday June 3rd 2022
Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Paris
11, rue Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris (5ème)
« Education and Economic Growth »
Program
14h00-14h15: Christine ALLAIS, Founder, Chair of the Foundation Committee
Welcoming address
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14h15-14h45 : Stefanie STANTCHEVA,
Harvard University, Member of the Economic advisors Committee, Maurice Allais Prize 2021
The Cost of Unequal Education
This talk discusses public policy and equality of opportunity. How should we finance education investments to improve social mobility? How do citizens perceive equality of opportunity and possible policy measures to improve it? The talk will focus both on theory and recent empirical evidence.
14h45-15h00 : Discussion with the audience
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15h00-15h30 : Xavier FONTANET
Former Chairman and CEO of Essilor International Corp., Professor of Strategy at HEC
On Some Successful Education Systems Abroad
Which educational systems can be found particularly performing by the head of an international firm regarding specifically the capacity of innovation and of adaptation to the firm’s changes of strategy? In what respect do Switzerland and Finland, for example, call for a thorough reflection?
15h30-15h45 : Discussion with the audience
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15h45-16h10 : Coffee break
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16h15-16h45 : Ludger WOESSMANN
University of Munich, Director of the Center for the Economics of Education
The Knowledge Capital of Nations:
Education and the Economics of Growth
Why are people in East Asia roughly nine times as prosperous as their grandparents, whereas people in Latin America only two-and-a-half times? Using international student achievement data, our research shows that the skills of the population – termed in the aggregate as the “knowledge capital” of nations – are a decisive factor for the long-run growth of countries. A simple model that considers only educational achievement and the initial level of per-capita GDP can account for three quarters of international differences in long-run economic growth. Economic policy that aims at long-run prosperity should thus focus on the quality of schools.
16h45-17h00 : Discussion with the audience
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17h00-17h30 : Bertrand MUNIER
Em. Pr. at the Sorbonne, Chair of the Scientific Committee of the Maurice Allais Foundation
An Education to Grasp and to Innovate
Lessons from Experience and Maurice Allais’s Stances
Any sustainable improvement in the standard of living implies to remedy the declining trend of scientific background achievement observed in French schools during the last 30 years. The talk focuses on some key-findings and suggests a narrow way in overcoming this gap. To restore a buoying innovation would call for a limited but consistent revision of elementary school, professional baccalaureate, organization of the higher education and research system and for an improved equality of opportunity.
17h30-17h45 : Discussion with the audience
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17h45-19h00 : Cocktail party
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