Clair Brown, PhD., is Professor of Economics emerita and Director of the Center for Work, Technology and Society at the University of California, Berkeley. Brown has published research on many aspects of how economies function, including inequality, sustainability, high-tech industries, the standard of living, and wage determination. Her books include American Standards of Living, and Chips and Change: How crisis reshapes the semiconductor industry. Her most recent book Buddhist Economics: An enlightened approach to the dismal science (Bloomsbury Press) provides an economic framework that integrates global sustainability, shared prosperity and care for the human spirit. Brown’s research team developed a Sustainable Share-prosperity Policy Index that evaluates 50 countries’ economic policies according to how well they protect the environment (sustainability), structure markets to achieve social goals (equity), and provide basic services and opportunities (wellbeing). One aspect of this work is the development of a measure of economic performance based on the quality of life, and to estimate it for state of California. The Genuine Progress Index (GPI) integrates measurements of inequality and environmental degradation as well as value of nonmarket activities and consumption to provide an inclusive measurement of sustainable economic performance to guide policy. At UCB Brown co-founded a new graduate program called Development Engineering, for students in engineering and economics to develop their multidisciplinary skills for designing, building, and evaluating new technologies to help developing or under-resourced regions.
Dr. Clair Brown
Professor of Economics emerita and Director of the Center for Work, Technology and Society at the University of California, Berkeley.