CREDO economists, along with other scholars, discussed and debated the best policies in light of the COVID-19 pandemic in two separate panels. On May 5, 2020, amidst lockdowns in many areas Jesus Fernandez-Villaverde (University of Pennsylvania) and Casey Mulligan (University of Chicago) discussed the economic and social costs and consequences of the lockdown. On June…
Catholic schools serve 62 million K12 students, with Catholic universities serving millions more. Yet relatively littleapplied research by economists has been conducted on Catholic schools, especially in the developing world whereenrollment is rising quickly. I am exploring the possibility of creating a advisory team of economists who could sup-port the International Office of Catholic Education…
For more info, visit: https://www.lumenchristi.org/event/2020/05/economic-costs-of-pandemic-catholic-social-teaching-economics-in-dialogue-joseph-kaboski
Since 2017, Jesus Fernandez-Villaverde, Professor of Economics at the University of Pennsylvania and CREDO member, has taught a very interesting and unique course for a secular university. The course entitled, “Foundations of Market Economies” focuses on the role of markets in modern economies and their historical evolution but also blends in material on markets and…
A keynote talk from Bishop Oscar Cantu of Las Cruces headlined the discussion of the family and its role in the economy on April 30 and May 1, as economists, bishops, and other scholars gather in Chicago for the Lumen Christi Institute’s 7th annual Conference on Economics and Catholic Social Thought. The theme, “The Family and the Changing Economy”, was quite timely, falling squarely between the two October meetings of the 2014-15 Synod of Bishops on the Family.
The public event was opened by Blase Cupich, Archbishop of Chicago, and involved responses by CREDO economists Valerie Ramey (UC-San Diego) and William Evans (Notre Dame), as well Pierre-Andre Chiappori (Columbia), a noted expert on the economics of the family, and Christine Firer Hinze (Fordham), a social ethicist focusing on the family. …
The focus of this issue was supposed to be marriage and the family, but on April 17, Francis Cardinal George, passed away after a long bout with cancer. He was our Episcopal Moderator, that is, our church representative on CREDO’s board, and in many ways he was the impetus for the existence of our society, so I would like to spend some time in this column celebrating his life.
Francis George was born in Chicago on January 16, 1937, as the country was still struggling with the Great Depression. The second of two children, he attended the Chicago parochial schools, and he was the only bishop of Chicago to be a native Chicagoan. Although a native son, he had a measured view of the city of Chicago as an adult. He loved the people and his diocese, but he hated the corruption of local politics. …
The 6th Annual Lumen Christi Conference on Economics and Catholic Social Thought provoked a thoughtful discussion on conceptions of the human person within economics and theology, and CREDO members played an instrumental role in the conference. CREDO’s own Mary Hirschfeld (Villanova) gave the keynote address at the conference on April 1 at the University of Chicago, and she was joined by fellow CREDO member Jesus Fernandez-Villaverde (Penn), as well as Francis Cardinal George of Chicago, economist Rachel Kranton (Duke), and philosopher Russell Hittinger (Tulsa).
Cardinal George, in his last conference as acting Archbishop of Chicago, opened the event by emphasizing the importance of conversation between economists and bishops. He noted that past conversations were often difficult because of different anthropologies. …
Welcome to the second issue of our CREDO newsletter. A great deal has happened since our last issue.
In the spring, Thomas Piketty’s book, Capital in the 21st Century became a New York Times bestseller, creating excitement, controversy and much discussion in the economics community but probably more so in the Church, media, and broader society. The focus of the book is, of course, wealth and income inequality, and we have decided to give some focus to the issue in the current issue. CREDO vice-president Jesus Fernandez Villaverde has contributed a thoughtful review of the book…
Founded in mid-2013, the Catholic Research Economists Discussion Organization had its first membership meeting on January 4, 2014. The meeting was part of the Allied Social Sciences Association meetings in Philadelphia. CREDO members began with a Mass celebrated by Bishop John McIntyre at St. John the Evangelist’s Catholic Church.
The members followed Mass with a breakfast and meeting…
Welcome to the inaugural issue of the CREDO newsletter, “On the Margin.” What do you think of the title? More importantly, what did it make you think of?
The phrase “on the margin” has many different meanings to many different people. To research economists, we use the phrase to think about the costs or benefits of an additional good consumed, worker hired, etc. We think of phrases like “marginal cost”, “marginal product”, or “marginal utility”. To a finance economist, the phrase might mean buying securities “on the margin”, that is, with borrowed money. To businesspersons, the word “margin” might remind them of profit margins. To a person directly engaged with the social ministry of the Church, “on the margin” is a phrase that emphasizes a commitment to those on those people who are sometimes forgotten or neglected members of society, e.g., the poor, indigenous peoples, women and children, the elderly. …