Contributor(s): Professor Nicholas Barr | In this lunchtime series lectures, a selection of LSE's academics from across the spectrum of the social sciences explain the latest thinking on how social scientists work to address the critical problems of the day. They survey the leading ideas and contributions made by their discipline, explain the types of problems that are addressed and the tools that are used, and explore the kinds of solutions proposed. Nicholas Barr is professor of public economics at LSE and the author of numerous books and articles on the economics of the welfare state and the finance of higher education.