BHUBANESWAR: Well-known economist Prof Prasanta Pattnaik of University of California delivered the inaugural lecture on 'Measurement of Multi-dimensional Deprivation' in the Bidyadhar Mishra Memorial Lecture Series organised at Utkal University here on Saturday.
The lecture series has been initiated by the Alumni Association of Analytical and Applied Economics Department in the honour of Prof Bidyadhar Mishra, founder professor and former head of the department.
The inaugural lecture of the series focused on defining and measuring different tenets of economic, social and cultural deprivation of the majority of the populace and some critical methodological fallacies while undertaking such tasks.
Prof Pattanaik, one of the pioneers of the alternative methods of measuring such deprivation, focused on the need for accounting a society's overall deprivation or living standard as a resultant of the comprehensive standards of living experienced by each and every individual.
Discussing certain conceptual issues in this context, he underlined some difficulties including the 'counting approach' to the measurement of multi-dimensional deprivation. The counting approach has been developed in recent years and is becoming increasingly popular among policy makers, he said.
Prof Pattanaik was also conferred 'Honoris Causa' in Social Sciences by Utkal University for his contributions to the theory and applications of Economics.