BizKnowledge Watch

The Nobel Prize for Economics has been awarded to two US academics, Alvin E. Roth and Lloyd S. Shapley. They have been chosen “for the theory of stable allocations and the practice of market design.”

This year’s Prize concerns a central economic problem: how to match different agents as well as possible. For example, students have to be matched with schools, and donors of human organs with patients in need of a transplant. How can such matching be accomplished as efficiently as possible? What methods are beneficial to what groups? The prize rewards two scholars who have answered these questions on a journey from abstract theory on stable allocations to practical design of market

Alvin E. Roth is a Professor of Economics and Business Administration at Harvard Business School.

Lloyd S. Shapley is a Professor emeritus of Economics and Mathematics at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

More information can be found on the Nobel Prize organization’s web page.

(CC) Nobel Prize Organization

The Nobel Prize for Economics has been awarded to two US academics, Thomas J. Sargent and Christopher Sims. They have been chosen for “their empirical research on cause and effect in the macroeconomy.”

Both professors have studied how economic policy, such as raising interest rates or cutting taxes, affects macroeconomic variables such as GDP and inflation.

Thomas J. Sargent is a professor of economics at New York University.

Christopher Sims is a professor of economics and banking at Princeton University.

More information can be found on the Nobel Prize organization’s web page.

(CC) World Bank

The World Bank in association with Harper Collins has published the new third edition of The Atlas of Global Development. The book is a comprehensive guide to the most critical issues facing our changing world. It presents an overview of the world and its people at the start of the 21st century.

The most urgent social, economic, and environmental issues facing the planet are presented in easy-to read, colorful world maps, tables, graphs, text and photographs.

The book is available at: http://issuu.com/world.bank.publications/docs/9780821385838

(CC) loop_oh/Flickr

The European Central Bank (ECB) has published its Convergence Report 2010, which assesses the economic and legal convergence of nine Member States of the European Union (EU): Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Sweden. The report examines whether a sufficient degree of sustainable economic convergence has been achieved in these countries.

Overall, the report concludes that in many of the countries important challenges have come to the fore resulting from previously accumulated imbalances and vulnerabilities, which have led to a deep adjustment process over recent years.

The Convergence Report can be obtained in 21 Union languages on the ECB’s website.

(CC) James P Wells/Flickr

Adecco has presented the results of the latest edition of its labor market index of the Spanish autonomous regions (ILCA, for its Spanish acronym), which was conducted by IESE-IRCO researchers. The report covers the third quarter of 2009 and includes forecasts for the first quarter of 2010.

The main conclusions of the study are:

• Evolution of the Labor Market: Following three years of relatively positive performance, the ILCA recorded its fourth consecutive inter-annual decline. Moreover, this year’s inter-annual variation of 6.1% represents the worst result registered by the ILCA since its inception 10 years ago.

• Job Creation: The inter-annual decline in job positions was practically the same as was recorded in the previous quarter. The study’s authors conclude that the total number of jobs lost will be around 1,476,100. In percentage terms, the inter-annual decline in employment numbers (of 7.3%) is the largest registered since the Civil War.

• Employment Rate: The unemployment rate in the third quarter remained at just under 18 percent, the same level recorded in the previous quarter and the highest rate since the end of 1997. It is the eighth consecutive inter-annual rise in the unemployment rate.

• Job Creation by Category: In the third quarter there was an inter-annual fall in the number of temporary workers of 899,000 (representing a decrease of 18.2%). In other words, over the last 12 months practically one out of every five temporary workers has lost their job. At the same time, the number of self-employed workers has decreased by 380,000 (10.2% fewer than before) while the number of permanent workers fell by 197,000 (representing a drop of 1.7%).

The full text is available on Adecco’s website.