George DeMartino: The Tragic Science: How Economists Cause Harm (Even as They Aspire to Do Good)

PERI is pleased to welcome George DeMartino as he discusses his new book, The Tragic Science: How Economists Cause Harm (Even as They Aspire to Do Good).

In The Tragic Science, George F. DeMartino says what economists have too long repressed: that economists do great harm even as they aspire to do good. Economist-induced harm, DeMartino shows, results in part from economists’ “irreparable ignorance”—from the fact that they know far less than they tend to believe they know—and from disciplinary training that treats the human tolls of economic policies and interventions as simply the costs of promoting social betterment. DeMartino details the complicated nature of economic harm, explores economists’ frequent failure to recognize it, and makes a sobering case for professional humility and for genuine respect for those who stand to be harmed by economists’ practice.

George DeMartino is a Professor of International Economics at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies of the University of Denver. He is the co-director of the MA degree in Global Economic Affairs. He has served on faculty of the School since 1993. Prior to that, he taught at Dickinson College and Trinity College. He earned his BA at Harvard University; an MA in Industrial Relations at Warwick University; and his Ph.D. in Economics at the University of Massachusetts. Prior to graduate school, Professor DeMartino served as a union organizer and negotiator for AFSCME, AFL-CIO in Connecticut.

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

In-person at the 209 Crotty Hall, 412 N. Pleasant St, UMass Amherst. 

Or, livestream via Zoom at  https://umass-amherst.zoom.us/j/95570504660?pwd=T1lESlo5S2tzdGZzcUduWENLREI0Zz09, Zoom passcode: 672236. 

For more information, email Nicole Dunham: NDunham@umass.edu.