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Is Finance Really A Curse for Society?

Prof. Laurent Frésard
Prof. Laurent Frésard

Institutional Communication Service

Many observers in the media and policy circles worry that the financial sector is becoming too big and is now hurting the real economy. Critics increasingly argue that finance is primarily extracting rents from the rest of the economy, creates many distortions, and generates large negative externalities, affecting most of us. Many movements all around the world are pushing for tighter regulations limiting the role of the financial sector (including Switzerland, with an important incoming national referendum).

On April 19, at 5:30pm in the Lugano campus Auditorium, Professor Laurent Frésard, from the USI Faculty of Economics, will give his inaugural lecture, during which he will discuss these concerns, cast them in a broad framework to clearly understand the key role of finance in our society, and discuss how his recent research casts doubt serious of the existing critiques. Prof. Frésard will explain why finance is not really a curse for society, but an engine to foster our prosperity, if we make a collective effort to understand and use its insights properly.

 

For information on Prof. Laurent Frésard:

www.people.usi.ch/fresal/