Hugo Blunch to Deliver Endowed Professorship Lecture Professor Blunch’s talk will be held in Northen Auditorium on March 29.
Hugo Blunch, professor of economics, will present a public lecture to mark his appointment to the Darrold and Kay Cannan Term Professorship at Washington and Lee University on March 29 at 5:30 p.m. in Northen Auditorium in Leyburn Library.
Titled “Positive Side Effects: Program Evaluation and The World Bank vs. Adult Literacy Programs and Child Mortality in Ghana,” Blunch’s lecture brings together his experience at the World Bank Headquarters and his ongoing research on Ghana, which focuses on adult literacy programs and health outcomes. In the lecture, Blunch will also discuss how statistics and econometrics can facilitate discussions of policymaking, demonstrating the usefulness of classroom skill sets in the “real world.”
Ghana also occupies a special place in Blunch’s heart, not only because of his past work and research in the country but because of the three Spring Term courses he led with Tyler Dickovick, Grigsby Term Professor of Politics, in 2009, 2012 and 2015.
“In my talk, I bring together my work with the World Bank, my first visit to Ghana and Sub-Saharan Africa, and my research program on health and education in Ghana, and I anchor these elements in how economic policymaking is conducted — and can be improved — using quantitative evidence,” Blunch said. “I hope that students will also attend, so they can realize even more how what they are learning in their statistics and econometrics classes is actually very useful out there in the ‘real world.”
Blunch joined the W&L faculty in 2006 after working as a consultant with the World Bank Headquarters in Washington, D.C. He earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree in economics from the University of Aarhus, Denmark, a master’s degree in economics and econometrics from the University of Southampton, United Kingdom, and a doctorate in economics from George Washington University.
Blunch’s work has appeared in several notable journals, including Economic Development and Cultural Change, the World Bank Economic Review and the International Labour Review. He has presented at conferences sponsored by the Population Association of America, the European Society for Population Economics, the Institute for the Study of Labor, and other national and international professional associations. Blunch is also a research fellow with the Institute for the Study of Labor, a private independent economic research institute in Germany focused on the analysis of global labor markets.
The Darrold and Kay Cannan Term Professorship was established in 2007-2008 with gifts from Darrold A. Cannan, Jr. ’53 and his wife, Kay. It is a permanently endowed fund that provides support for a faculty member in the Williams School. The award recognizes a different professor every three years.
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