Theme：Globalisation in retreat? The case for a resilient, happiness-led economy

Guest Speaker：Ben Freyens (University of Canberra)

Time：March 16th, 2026(Monday)，13:30-15:00 pm

Venue：Room 216, Business School Building

Organizer：The Department of Economics

Guest Bio:

  Ben Freyens (PhD Economics, 2008, Research School of Economics, The ANU, Australia) is Professor of Economics at the University of Canberra. He was the Head of the School of Government over 2021-2025. His research interests include law and economics, employment protection, the economics of radio spectrum allocation, the measurement of inequality and poverty, disaster recovery, housing markets, social capital, safety research and agricultural policy. He has conducted several research projects for the Australian Communications and Media Authority on optimal spectrum licensing and radio transmission technologies. His research has been published in leading economics journals such as Review of Economics and Statistics, Information Economics and Policy, The ILR Review, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Journal of Public Economic Theory, Telecommunications Policy, and in IEEE publications (engineering). He has been a guest editor for the journal International Journal of Disaster Risk Recovery. In his earlier working life, he was a statistical expert for the European Commission, and later taught economics at Deakin University, UNSW, UOW and at the ANU.

Synopsis：

  The old model of globalisation maximised efficiency in production and consumption but created instability and inequality, which led to its current decline. The path forward isn’t isolationism, but new forms of local and global collaborations that better understand what makes humans happy, prioritise human connections and security, and replace consumerism with experiences. The deglobalisation we are living through is an opportunity to rebuild our economies with a different form of efficiency in mind, combining greater resilience and new forms of prosperity. This public lecture will discuss classical arguments and recent developments in the economics of happiness and collaboration.