Reception 6:00-6:30 p.m. | Lecture 6:30-7:30 p.m.

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About the speaker:
In his talk, Kevin Murphy will discuss potential solutions to the increase in inequality. For many, the solution to an increase in inequality is to make the tax structure more progressive - raise taxes on high-income households and reduce taxes on low-income households. While this may sound sensible, it is not, he says. A more sensible policy, according to Murphy, is to try to take greater advantage of the opportunities afforded by the higher returns to human capital and encourage more human capital investment. His reserach finds that attempts to raise taxes and impose other penalties on the higher earnings that come from greater skills could greatly reduce the productivity of the world's leading economy by discouraging investments in its most productive and precious form of capital - human capital.

About the Speaker
Kevin Murphy is the George J. Stigler Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He is the first professor at a business school to be chosen as a MacArthur Fellow. He was selected for "revealing economic forces shaping vital social phenomena such as wage inequality, unemployment, addiction, medical research, and economic growth." Murphy graduated from UCLA in 1981 with a degree in economics, before going on to earn his Ph.D. from Chicago in 1986, where he has been ever since. Murphy is a faculty research associate for the National Bureau of Economic Research, a fellow of the Econometric Society, and an elected member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. He was a John Bates Clark Medalist in 1997, and has received fellowships from the Earhart Foundation, the Sloan Foundation, and the Friedman Fund. Murphy is also the author of two books and many academic articles. His writing has been published in the Boston Globe, The New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, and the Wall Street Journal.