Conceptions of Social Policy in Latin America - Oct. 24, 12:00-1:30pm

THE CONCEPTIONS OF SOCIAL POLICY:
UNIVERSALISM VS. TARGETING

Dr. José Antonio Ocampo, Columbia University
Friday, October 24, 2008
12:00 – 1:30 pm
The Puck Building, 295 Lafayette St, 2nd Floor, New York, NY

José Antonio Ocampo will look at the debate on universalism vs.
targeting in social policies in Latin America – for example, whether
to provide universal access to health care or to target only the most
vulnerable populations for such services. Dr. Ocampo will examine how
social rights and the welfare state are conceptualized in industrial
countries, and he will analyze how these ideas informed social
policies in Latin America (on things like health care, education and
Social Security) during the era of state-led industrialization.

Professor Ocampo will use this framework to analyze the emphasis on
targeting that spread during market-oriented reforms in the 1990s. He
will explain the recent return of visions of universalism in social
policy and provide evidence of its strong redistributive effects, but
also its higher fiscal costs.

José Antonio Ocampo, PhD, a Colombian citizen, has been a Professor in
the School of International and Public Affairs and Fellow of the
Committee on Global Thought at Columbia University since July 2007.
From 1998 to 2007 he served as the United Nations
Undersecretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs and, prior to
that, as Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Latin
America and the Caribbean ( ECLAC).

Dr. Ocampo has received a number of personal honors and distinctions,
including the 2008 Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of
Economic Thought and the 1988 "Alejandro Angel Escobar" National
Science Award of Colombia. He is author or editor of over 35 books,
has directed over 20 institutional reports, and has published over 200
scholarly articles on macroeconomic theory and policy, international
financial issues, economic development, international trade, and
Colombian and Latin American economic history.

A light lunch will be served, and RSVPs are required.

Please RSVP online at http://wagner.nyu.edu/events by Wednesday,
October 22, 2008.

This event is part of the Democratic Governance and Sustainable
Development in Latin America series co-sponsored by NYU Wagner's
Research Center for Leadership in Action, the NYU Wagner Office of
International Programs, the NYU Center for Latin American and
Caribbean Studies, the NYU Center for Global Affairs, the NYU Latino
Studies Program, the Bickel and Brewer Latino Institute for Human
Rights, and the Alliance of Latino and Latin American Students. For
information, email amunoz@nyu.edu .