Stockholm from a different perspective
20 Oct 2009 | Posted By: Maria Markenroth
By: Patrick Hofmeister
Last weekend I headed off to Stockholm. But instead of doing the regular stuff exchange students do while visiting the capital, namely sightseeing and partying, I participated in one of the world’s biggest orienteering races called 25manna (check wiki if you don’t know about orienteering: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orienteering). As the name already suggests, it is a team competition in which mainly Scandinavian club relays consisting of 25 runners compete against each other. Compared to regular orienteering competitions in which athletes of the same age run against each other, a 25manna club team has to include runners of every age and gender. Thus, a huge diversity is required and every club member can contribute to the overall success. This is what makes the 25manna so interesting and unique.
Me and Grete Gutmann, another JIBS student, were running for IK Hakarpspojkarna (IKHP), a club situated in Huskvarna. After only some weeks of training in the Swedish forests, we were happy with our nomination for the last two legs for the second team.
The finished area 20km south of Stockholm was still covered with frost as the mass start of the first leg runners was arranged. 7.2km on the straight line (remember: the route between the controls is up to the competitors) for the first runners, and the pace was incredible fast since the first teams changed-over already after 35min. The two IHKP teams started pretty well being both among the top 70 on the start leg. Over the course of the race, our club mates could catch up bit by bit until the first team was even leading after 22 of 25 runners. At that time, our 2nd squad was on a very good 36th place among other very strong teams. So, now it was up to the JIBS anchormen to secure the success for IKHP. I headed out into the woods on the 8,5km long course with a former Swedish national team runner from IFK Göteborg and managed to run together with him until we reached the spectator control. Afterwards, I lost some time due to some stupid mistakes where I did not read the map properly. Nevertheless, I could defend our position in the finish. Grete did a great job on the last leg too so that we could run into an amazing 36th spot being the best 2nd team of all clubs. Given that the first team came 3rd, IKHP can be considered as one of the best orienteering clubs of the world. I am proud to be part of such a fantastic squad and do already look forward to upcoming challenges!
Results can be found here: http://www.25manna.nu/
IKHP orienteering: http://www.ikhp.se/orientering/
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Hubert Fromlet: Dignified Nobel Prize Winners and Research Areas
15 Oct 2009 | Posted By: JIBS Stories
As most readers of my blog probably suspected, I cannot completely refrain from making some further comments apart from those I already made to the press. Elinor Ostrom’s research on the positive management of common property by user associations may, for example, be helpful when dealing with environmental issues on a local or regional level. Williamson’s organizational and institutional research contributes, for example, to a better understanding why firms many times may prefer vertical integration.
¤ Both this year’s winners of the Nobel Prize in Economics and their research areas (organizing/organization) were strongly recommended in my latest blog. This is nice again because I was forecasting at least one name correctly seven times out of ten in the past decade (but I should be humble). This claimed quite some reading concerning research results that were achieved some 20-30 years ago and that are still relevant for current research and studies. Doing this kind of studies is not only fun but it improves also my own conditions for studies and teaching.
¤ I am happy with the professors Elinor Ostrom(Indiana) and Oliver Williamson(Berkeley) who will receive the highest economic award in Stockholm on December 10. But I feel somewhat sorry about Jean Tirole (Toulouse) – one of the leading European economists below 65 years – since Tirole to a high extent deals with organizational issues as well (though mainly from other angles). However, Tirole’s time still may come.
¤ I also feel happy about the fact that interdisciplinary research (by sociologist Elinor Ostrom) gets more appreciation which I have been pleading for during quite some years. Our economic world has become by far too complex that we can afford to neglect other research disciplines that have an impact on the economy such as psychology, sociology, politics, law and regulations, health and the environment. The ideal world of the classical “homo oeconomicus” does not exist anymore (even if Milton Friedman once wrote that the results of modeling not necessarily have to be in line with reality).
¤ After many years of pointing at the absence of women in the list of Nobel Prize winners and at the fact that only a few women had major scientific breakthroughs some twenty years ago, I notice with satisfaction that Elinor Ostrom since several years ago was on my list of thinkable female Nobel Prize winners (and Oliver Williamson, by the way, from the very beginning of that list).
¤ Looking at interesting areas for next year’s selection, research on labor markets, modern growth theory, finance and modeling techniques could become particularly relevant. This year, my wish of awarding a dignified woman became verified. For 2010, I am particularly hoping for a European Nobel Prize winner. European economic research is catching up.
I will get back to all these Nobel Prize issues in the beginning of October 2010.
Visit Hubert Fromlet’s blog (mainly in Swedish)
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New venture trade show! Video and pics
07 Oct 2009 | Posted By: Maria Markenroth
The JIBS 3rd Annual New Venture Trade Show was held on 1 October.
Our first year students taking the Entrepreneurship and Business Planning Course presented companies they have started as part of a course project.
During the Entrepreneurship and Business Planning course each team (company) was loaned 200 SEK and with that they had the assignment of starting a company. At the trade show the teams set up a booth to exhibit their company, answer questions and perhaps make some last minute sales. Our students have worked hard on this assignment and we are very proud of what they accomplished in such a short time.
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Hubert Fromlet: Who wins the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2009?
05 Oct 2009 | Posted By: JIBS Stories
It is, as usual, hard to predict the next winner of the Nobel Prize in economics. The method should be to identify certain research areas that are – or should be – on the “waiting list” and then to find some outstanding pioneers in these fields. The guess has to be done in this order. Areas that could be particularly interesting this year are modern growth theory, theory of firms, theory of incentives, labor market and finance – and as always – certain important macro- and microeconomic methodological breakthroughs.
However, I would not rule out economic research topics with interdisciplinary links to sociology, psychology or politics. Most text of this article is written in Swedish – but foreign readers will be provided with headlines in English above the two specific tables with my own favorite candidates (at the end of this paper). Most candidates come again from the U.S. If the award goes to Europe, the French economist Jean Tirole (Toulouse) should be the most probable candidate. And I continue to plead for Assar Lindbeck as a very good candidate.
Read the full text at Professor Fromlet’s blog (in Swedish)
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