The Morley Gunderson Lecture, jointly sponsored by CIRHR, Woodsworth College and the Department of Economics began in 2015.
The Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources has had a long-standing relationship with Woodsworth College. In the mid-1970s Woodsworth established a Certificate in Personnel and Industrial Relations and, in 1986, an undergraduate degree program in Labour Management Relations (later re-named Employment Relations). Throughout this time a close relationship was established with Woodsworth, as many of the courses in both the undergraduate program and the Certificate program in Human Resource Management were taught by Centre faculty. The Centre also has long-standing ties with Economics. From 1980 to 2009 the Director of the Centre was also a professor of labour economics cross-appointed with the Department of Economics (e.g., Noah Meltz from 1980-1990; Morley Gunderson 1990-1998; and then Frank Reid from 1998-2009). Noah Meltz later went on to become the Principal of Woodsworth College from 1991-1998.
Given the interconnections between these three units, Woodsworth, the Centre, and the Department of Economics decided in early 2015 to establish an annual lecture on labour economics and industrial relations/human resources. It was named for Professor Morley Gunderson to honour his contributions to Canadian labour economics and industrial relations over the past five decades.
Morley Gunderson is the author of research papers and books on labour markets, minimum wages, pay equity, and many other areas of labour economics. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the recipient of many awards, including the Industrial Relations Research Association Excellence in Education Award in Labour Economics, and the Gérard Dion Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Field of Industrial Relations. In 2011 he was the first Canadian to be elected as a Fellow of the Labor and Employment Relations Association. He was director of the Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources from 1984 to 1997 and recently retired from the Department of Economics, but he remains actively involved in the life of all three units.
7th (2021)
- Speaker: Thomas Lemieux, Professor of Economics at the University of British Columbia’s Vancouver School of Economics
- Topic: Labour Laws, Unionization, and Wage Setting; (PDF Slides)
- Date and Time: November 25, 2021, 4:00pm–5:30pm
6th (2020)
- Speaker: Michael Baker, Professor of Economics and Canada Research Chair in Economics and Public Policy at the University of Toronto
- Topic: A Universal Child Care Strategy: The View From Economics (video)
- Date and Time: December 10, 2020, 4:00pm–5:30pm
- Location: Online
5th (2019)
- Speaker: Richard B. Freeman, Herbert Ascherman Chair in Economics at Harvard University
- Topic: Labor in the Era of Robots and Algorithms (slides in PDF, 2 mb)
- Date and Time: December 2, 2019 4:00pm–6:00pm
- Location: Kruger Hall Commons, Woodsworth College, 119 St. George Street
4th (2018)
- Speaker: Francine Blau, Professor of Industrial Relations and Labour Relations and Professor of Economics, ILR School, Cornell University
- Topic: What Do We Really Know About the Gender Wage Gap? (slides in PDF, 401 kb)
- Date and Time: November 16, 2018 4:30pm–6:30pm
- Location: Kruger Hall Commons, Woodsworth College, 119 St. George Street
3rd (2017)
- Speaker: Craig Riddell, Professor Emeritus of Economics, Vancouver School of Economics, University of British Columbia
- Topic: What Do Unions Do to Wage Inequality? (slides in PDF, 348 kb); Unions and Wage Inequality: The Roles of Gender, Skill and Public Sector Employment, 2017 (with David Card and Thomas Lemieux) (paper in PDF, 633kb)
- Date and Time: November 2, 2017 4:00pm–6:00pm
- Location: The Vivian and Divid Campbell Conference Facility, Munk School of Global Affairs, 1 Devonshire Place
2nd (2016)
- Speaker: Orley Ashenfelter, Joseph Douglas Green 1895 Professor of Economics at Princeton University
- Topic: Real Wage Rates Over Time and Space (The McWages Project) (slides in PDF)
- Date and Time: November 11, 2016 4:30–6:30pm
- Location: Innis College, Innis Town Hall, 2 Sussex Ave.
1st (2015) - The Inaugural Morley Gunderson Lecture in Labour Economics and Industrial Relations
- Speaker: Edward Lazear, Professor, Jack Steele Parker Professor of Human Resources Management and Economics, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business
- Topic: Personnel Economics: Using Economic Theory and Econometrics to Understand Human Resources Issues (slides in PDF, 324 kb)
- Date and Time: November 6, 2015 4:00pm–5:30pm
- Location: Kruger Hall Commons, Woodsworth College, 119 St. George St.