Treasury Guest Lecture: Productivity in a Changing World Series - Davud Rostam-Afschar

About this presentation
A key challenge of our time is the secular decline in economic growth around the world. In this seminar, Professor Davud Rostam-Afschar will discuss the role of factors in product and labour markets that contribute to this challenge and explore opportunities identified by economic research that may help get the economy back on track to prosperity.
In addition, Davud will consider ways of organising product and labour markets in light of technological progress. Digital technologies and artificial intelligence change the way we work and do business. They may threaten jobs, but they could also help boost productivity. Our guest speaker will be addressing how these new technologies can be leveraged for the benefit of businesses, workers, and consumers.
About the presenter
Davud Rostam-Afschar is Associate Professor at the University of Mannheim and Academic Director of the German Business Panel. Before joining the faculty of the University of Mannheim, he was a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley and Queen May University of London, and worked at the University of Hohenheim, the Freie Universität Berlin and the University of Potsdam.
His research spans several topics, with a particular focus on the interaction of product and labour markets, the regulation of entry, taxation, investments, and productivity. Rostam-Afschar has led several projects funded by third parties such as the German Research Foundation and has authored or coauthored dozens of scholarly articles. Rostam-Afschar is a research affiliate of IZA and GLO, an advisor to the European Commission and the OECD, and on the editorial review board of Small Business Economics. He teaches courses on economic policy, econometrics and machine learning.
About this seminar series
New ideas, cutting-edge thinking, research evidence and expert advice are all critical for stimulating and provoking our thinking here at the Treasury. Our current guest lectures theme - Productivity in a Changing World - recognises that lifting our productivity performance continues to be central to improving New Zealanders’ wellbeing and that we are facing this challenge in the context of significant economic, social and environmental shifts. These shifts will require major changes in our economy if we are to sustain and improve our economic and productivity performance.