Dr. FRANCISCO FERREIRA's (World Bank) Seminar held on June 25, 2008 at Middle East Technical University, Ankara Discussants: Prof. Halis Akder and Dr. Seyhan Aydınlıgil Moderator: Dr. Seyhan Aydınlıgil

INEQUALITY of OPPORTUNITY and ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT The Social Policy Program of the Graduate School of Social Sciences at Middle East Technical University hosted Dr. Francisco Ferreira (World Bank) who's seminar was entitled "Inequality of Opportunity and Economic Development". Dr. Ferreira stressed the opportunity perspective in the discourse of welfare distribution. By giving empirical illustrations, he showed why the "inequality of opportunity" approach is important for considering fairness purposes. For instance, in an analysis done for Latin America, Ferreira's findings show that external circumstances-such as family background, gender, birthplace-- which we cannot control but can control our life, influence the distribution of per capita consumption likewise for other social outcomes (educational attainment, health). Dr. Ferreira lastly discussed how the "Inequality of Opportunity" perspective can affect poverty reduction policies. Short Biography of Dr. Francisco Ferreira Francisco Ferreira is the Lead Economist in the Development Research Group at the World Bank, and has published widely on both theoretical and empirical issues related to inequality. Dr. Ferreira is a co-editor of the Journal of Economic Inequalityand a former Editor of Economía (the Journal of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association - LACEA). He was a co-Director of the team that wrote the World Development Report 2006, on Equity and Development. He holds a B.Sc.(Econ.), M.Sc. and Ph.D. from the London School of Economics, and was a Professor of Economics in Rio de Janeiro between 1999 and 2002. For more information please click here.

Prof. NICHOLAS BARR's (LSE) Seminar held on May 20, 2008 at Sakıp Sabancı Museum, Istanbul Moderator: Prof. Dr. Tosun Terzioğlu

FINANCING TERTIARY EDUCATION to PROMOTE QUALITY and WIDE PARTICIPATION: LESSONS from INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE The Education Reform Initiave hosted Prof. Nicholas Barr, from the London School of Economics, in Sabanci Museum in Istanbul. Prof. Barr talked about the higher education finance reforms in the United Kingdom (UK) which introduced a student loan system that finances university fees -- however, such loans need to be repaid only after graduation and repayments are contingent on future incomes earned. According to Prof. Barr, both the UK and international examples showed that private funds supplementing public finance helped the tertiary education system to achieve greater access with equity. Prof. Barr emphasized the role of government in regulating the higher education 'market' where students are well-informed and tax-payers are supporting a system which achieves wide participation and increased quality in tertiary education. Short Biography of Prof. Nicholas Barr Nicholas Barr has an MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics and a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, where he was a Fulbright Scholar. He is Professor of Public Economics at the London School of Economics, the author of numerous books and articles on the economics of the welfare state and the finance of higher education, including The Welfare State as Piggy Bank (Oxford University Press, 2001), The Economics of the Welfare State (Oxford University Press and Stanford University Press, 4th edition, 2004), and Financing Higher Education: Answers from the UK (with Iain Crawford), (London and New York: Routledge, 2005), and is currently engaged in writing Reforming Pensions (with Peter Diamond) (Oxford University Press, forthcoming). He is a member of the Editorial Board of the International Social Security Review and an Associate Editor of CESifo Economic Studies and the Australian Economic Review. His teaching includes economic theory, public economics, the economics of the welfare state, the political economy of post-communist transition and topics in public policy. http://econ.lse.ac.uk/staff/nb/index_own.html