Elinor Ostrom – First Woman Nobel Laureate in Economics!

On Monday, Elinor Ostrom became the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Economics.  The official Nobel press release is viewable here.  Forbes has two excellent articles on Elinor Ostrom’s impact on the world:

Why Elinor Ostrom Matters – This article reflects on applications of her studies in cooperative arrangements, also known as “The Commons.”
Elinor [...]

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Women and the Power of Microfinance

The Women’s Crusade is a featured article in a New York Times Magazine special issue published on August 17th.  The article discusses how microfinance and education aid to women are helping the cause of empowering women across the globe, fighting global poverty, and giving donors more of a return on their investment.  
 
If you enjoy this article, [...]

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UN WomenWatch

Thanks to Jeff, a SOM library student worker, for reminding me about the United Nations’ great website, WomenWatch.  The site acts as a clearinghouse for all subjects related to women in the world, from news to research to events.  You could spend the day looking at all of information they have, there’s just so much [...]

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Green Jobs Report

The United Nations, International Labour Organization, and Cornell University’s ILR school have collaborated on “Green Jobs: Toward Sustainable Work in a Low-Carbon World”, which was released today. It’s billed as “the first comprehensive study of the ‘green economy’ and its impact on the work world” and features some interesting findings, as well as [...]

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Global Consumption & Discretionary Income

The New York Times has a really great series of graphic representations, showing what countries spend their discretionary income on. You can see the graphs here, and the accompanying article here.

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International Poverty and the Working Poor in the US

The World Bank recently released a report, “The developing world is poorer than we thought, but no less successful in the fight against poverty”, saying that new economic figures show a larger amount of people in poverty than previously thought, but progress is being made against the dilemma. From the news release:
In a new [...]

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Bill Gates & Creative Capitalism

In this week’s issue of Time, Bill Gates has written a piece arguing for the mainstreaming of creative capitalism.  Since his introduction of the idea at the World Economic Forum in Davos earlier this year (see the YouTube video here) Gates has been strengthening his case for creative capitalism, which is an effort to focus [...]

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Europe’s Vacation Time – Just More Work at Home?

Fortune has an article online which uses recent research to turn a long-held notion on its head: that European workers have an easier time (and, sometimes the argument goes, are lazier) than Americans because of their (substantially) longer periods of vacation. What does more time at home and less time at work really [...]

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Nelson Mandela’s 8 Lessons of Leadership

Time has a wonderfully concise article on Nelson Mandela’s lessons of leadership.  Written by Richard Stengel, the co-writer of Mandela’s autobiography Long Walk to Freedom, these lessons are drawn from Stengel’s time spent learning from Mandela as they prepared to tell Mandela’s astounding life story.  Highly suggested for fans of Mandela as well as those [...]

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Financial Times 2008 Nigeria Report

Today’s Financial Times has an amazing full-section report on Nigeria, which is also available to view online here at their website.  While you’re there, check out FT’s other reports, such as this one on Africa-China trade.  And speaking of the Africa-China trade issue, I would suggest reading Fast Company’s special report “China in Africa” which [...]

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