Contributor(s): Dr Harry Walker | What would individualism and equality look like if detached from their foundations in a logic of equivalence? Harry Walker is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at LSE. Rita Astuti is Professor of Social Anthropology and Head of the Anthropology Department at LSE. The Department of Anthropology (@LSEAnthropology) is a leading centre for innovative research and teaching committed to both maintaining and renewing the core of the discipline.

Contributor(s): Sergio Mattarella | Sergio Mattarella is the President of the Republic of Italy. He was born in Palermo in 1941. In 1964 he obtained a summa con laude Law Degree from "La Sapienza" University. He was admitted to the Palermo Bar Association in 1967. He taught parliamentary law at the Law School of the University of Palermo until 1983. In 1983 he was elected to Parliament for the Christian Democracy Party in the western Sicily constituency and remained a member of the Chamber of Deputies until 2008. From July 1987 to July 1989 he was Minister for Relations with Parliament. He was Minister of Education from July 1989 to July 1990. He became Deputy Prime Minister in October 1998 and Minister of Defence from December 1999 to the June 2001 elections. During his mandate, laws were enacted to abolish conscription and to turn the Carabinieri into an autonomous armed force. During that period, Italy strongly supported the establishment of the European Security and Defence Policy, which led to the creation of the first European Army Corps. On 5 October 2011 he was elected Constitutional Judge by Parliament and was sworn in as a member of the Constitutional Court on 11 October 2011. He was elected twelfth President of the Republic on 31 January 2015. The LSE European Institute (@LSEEI) was established in 1991 as a dedicated centre for the interdisciplinary study of processes of integration and fragmentation within Europe. In the most recent national Research Assessment Exercise, the Institute was ranked first for research in European Studies in the United Kingdom. The LSE European Institute has been a Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence since 2009. Suggested hashtag for this event for Twitter users: #LSEItaly

Contributor(s): Professor Lord Desai, Professor Charles Goodhart, Stephen King | Meghnad Desai discusses his latest book Hubris: Why Economists Failed to Predict the Crisis and How to Avoid the Next One with Stephen King of HSBC. Meghnad Desai worked at LSE in the Economics Department from 1965 onwards, and is now Honorary Fellow and Emeritus Professor. He has written over 25 books and 200 articles in refereed journals. He is a Labour Peer and has received the Padma Bhushan from the Government of India. Charles Goodhart, a former member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee, is Emeritus Professor at the London School of Economics, and Director of the Financial Regulation Research Programme in the Financial Markets Group. Stephen King (@KingEconomist) is Group Chief Economist at HSBC. He is also a successful author. His latest book, When the Money Runs Out, was published by Yale University Press in May 2013 and was selected as a “book of the year” by the Financial Times, The Economist and The Times. Timothy Besley is School Professor of Economics and Political Science at LSE. He is also a Visiting Professor at the Institute for International Economic Studies at Stockholm University. From September 2006 to August 2009, he served as an external member of the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee. The Department of Economics at LSE (@LSEEcon) is one of the largest economics departments in the world. Its size ensures that all areas of economics are strongly represented in both research and teaching. The Centre For Macroeconomics (@CFMUK) brings together world-class experts to carry out pioneering research on the global economic crisis and to help design policies that alleviate it.

Contributor(s): Stephen J Dubner | When Freakonomics was first published, Steven D Levitt and Stephen J Dubner started a blog—and they’ve kept it up, tallying more than 8,000 blog posts on Freakonomics.com and pulling in 12 million page views per year. The best are now published in When to Rob a Bank. At this event, Stephen Dubner shares the Freakonomic secrets to making economic ideas fresh and entertaining through their blog and podcast (which has been downloaded a freakish 150million times). You’ll discover what people lie about, and why; why it might be time for a sex tax (if not a fat tax); and, yes, when to rob a bank. (Short answer: never; the ROI is terrible.) Stephen J Dubner (@freakonomics) is an award-winning writer and radio and TV personality. He has written six books, including the Freakonomics trilogy and is host of Freakonomics Radio. Tim Harford (@TimHarford) is a senior columnist for the Financial Times and the presenter of Radio 4’s More or Less and Pop-Up Economics With Tim Harford. His books include The Undercover Economist, The Logic of Life, Adapt and The Undercover Economist Strikes Back. The Department of Economics at LSE (@LSEEcon) is one of the largest economics departments in the world. Its size ensures that all areas of economics are strongly represented in both research and teaching. The Centre For Macroeconomics (@CFMUK) brings together world-class experts to carry out pioneering research on the global economic crisis and to help design policies that alleviate it.

Contributor(s): Jacob J. Lew | The conversation will focus on the state of the global economy ahead of the Secretary’s travel to a meeting of G-7 Finance Ministers in Dresden, Germany. Jack Lew was confirmed by the United States Senate on February 27, 2013, to serve as the 76th Secretary of the Treasury. Secretary Lew previously served as White House Chief of Staff. Prior to that role, Lew was the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), a position he also held in President Clinton's Cabinet from 1998 to 2001. Before returning to OMB in 2010, Lew first joined the Obama Administration as Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources. Lew began his career in Washington in 1973 as a legislative aide. From 1979 to 1987, he was a principal domestic policy advisor to House Speaker Thomas P. O'Neill, Jr, when he served the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee as Assistant Director and then Executive Director. He was the Speaker's liaison to the Greenspan Commission, which negotiated a bipartisan solution to extend the solvency of Social Security in 1983, and he was responsible for domestic and economic issues, including Medicare, budget, tax, trade, appropriations, and energy issues. Before joining the Obama Administration, Lew co-chaired the Advisory Board for City Year New York and was on the boards of the Kaiser Family Foundation, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the Brookings Institution Hamilton Project, and the Tobin Project. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the National Academy of Social Insurance, and of the bar in Massachusetts and the District of Columbia. The US Centre at LSE promotes scholarly analysis and critical debate about the United States.

Contributor(s): Professor Matthew Kahn | Professor Kahn, a leading expert on environmental and urban issues, will examine China’s economic growth to present key issues from his latest research. Matthew Kahn is a Professor in the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. Steve Gibbons is Professor of Economic Geography at LSE. The Department of Geography and Environment at LSE (@LSEGeography) is a centre of international academic excellence in economic, urban and development geography, environmental social science and climate change. The Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment (@GRI_LSE) is a research centre at LSE. The Institute’s research looks at the economics of climate change, and aims to inform policy and academic debate. Credits: Tom Sturdy (Audio Post-Production), LSE AV Services (Audio Recording).

Contributor(s): Liz Fekete, Kiri Kankhwende, Professor James Nazroo, Dr Debbie Weekes-Bernard | This event will consider the ongoing significance of race and class to shaping inequalities in contemporary British life. Liz Fekete is the Executive Director of the Institute for Race Relations and Head of its European Research Programme. Kiri Kankhwende is a human rights campaigner and journalist specialising in race, immigration and politics. James Nazroo is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Centre on Dynamics of Ethnicity. Debbie Weekes-Bernard is Head of Research at the Runnymede Trust. The Department of Sociology at LSE (@LSEsociology) was established in 1904 and remains committed to top quality teaching and leading research and scholarship today. Credits: Tom Sturdy (Audio Post-Production), LSE AV Services (Audio Recording).

Contributor(s): Professor Sendhil Mullainathan | Why does poverty persist? Why do successful people get things done at the last minute? A single psychology--the psychology of scarcity--connects these seemingly unconnected questions. The research in our book shows how scarcity creates its own mindset. Understanding this mindset sheds light on our personal problems as well as the broader social problem of poverty and what we can do about it. Sendhil Mullainathan (@m_sendhil) is a Professor of Economics at Harvard whose main interest is behavioural economics. Credits: Tom Sturdy (Audio Post-Production), LSE AV Services (Audio Recording).

Contributor(s): Dr Purna Sen | As part of LSE Research Festival 2015 the Above the Parapet project will showcase its recent research on women in public life. Purna Sen (@Purna_Sen) is Deputy Director of the Institute of Public Affairs at LSE. Julia Black is Pro Director for Research at LSE. LSE Research Festival (@LSEResearchFest) is a series of events, free and open to all, celebrating public engagement with social science research. The centrepiece of the series is an annual public exhibition of research from across LSE and other institutions in three categories - film, photography, and poster design. The Institute of Public Affairs (@LSEPubAffairs) is one of the world's leading centres of public policy. We aim to debate and address some of the major issues of our time, whether international or national, through our established teaching programmes, our research and our highly innovative public-engagement initiatives. LSE Works is a series of public lectures, that will showcase some of the latest research by LSE's academic departments and research centres. In each session, LSE academics will present key research findings, demonstrating where appropriate the implications of their studies for public policy. A list of all the LSE Works lectures can be viewed at LSE Works.

Contributor(s): Professor Julian Le Grand | Should governments save people from themselves? Do governments have the right to influence citizens’ behavior related to smoking tobacco, eating too much, not saving enough, drinking alcohol, or taking marijuana—or does this create a nanny state, leading to infantilization, demotivation, and breaches in individual autonomy? Looking at examples from both sides of the Atlantic and around the world, Government Paternalism examines the justifications for, and the prevalence of, government involvement and considers when intervention might or might not be acceptable. Building on developments in philosophy, behavioral economics, and psychology, Julian Le Grand explore the roles, boundaries, and responsibilities of the government and its citizens in his new book The Government Paternalist: nanny state or helpful friend? Julian Le Grand is Richard Titmuss Professor of Social Policy at LSE. Howard Glennerster is Emeritus Professor of Social Policy at LSE. The Department of Social Policy (@LSESocialPolicy) is the longest established in the UK and offers outstanding teaching based on the highest quality empirical research in the field. Credits: Tom Sturdy (Audio Post-Production), LSE AV Services (Audio Recording).