Robert Jensen of the Wharton School to Give Scholars' Convocation on Nov. 2

Robert Jensen, David B. Ford professor and chairperson of the Department of Business Economics and Public Policy at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, will give the Scholars’ Convocation at Grinnell College on Thursday, Nov. 2.

The lecture, which is free and open to the public, is titled “Is Image Everything? The Surprising Power of Peer Social Concerns on Behavior.” The event will start at 11 a.m. in Room 101 of the Joe Rosenfield ‘25 Center, 1115 Eighth Ave., Grinnell.

Jensen is also the Wharton Director of the Huntsman Program in International Studies and Business. He is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a fellow of the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development and an affiliate of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab. He has also served as an adviser to the International Labor Organization and the World Bank on strategies to eradicate child labor and the design of social welfare programs.

Jensen’s research focuses on the economics of poverty and economic development, including topics such as gender, health, education and fertility. His research has included projects in a number of countries including China, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Nepal and India. His work has been published in leading journals including the American Economic Review, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, and the Review of Economics and Statistics, and has been profiled in media outlets including The Economist, Foreign Policy, the New York Times, Science, and the Wall Street Journal.

The next Scholars’ Convocation, scheduled for Nov. 9 with Christina Sass, co-founder and COO of Andela, has been canceled and may be rescheduled for spring semester. Sass’s lecture was titled “Business Transforming International Development.”

George Anders, a contributing editor to Forbes magazine, will present the final Scholars’ Convocation of the fall semester on Nov. 16. His lecture is titled “Work’s Provocative Future: Which Graduates Will Thrive?”