Glostra blog

The Finnish government decided on October 21 that state-owned equities in eight non-strategic listed companies to be transferred to the entirely state-owned company Solidium Oy. The rationale for this decision is that Solidium could manage the holdings in a way that ensures the highest possible yield for the State. The decision was claimed to be “a natural continuation to the State’s active ownership policy, adopted by several previous Finnish governments. The global financial crisis that has been expanding rapidly makes it even more urgent for the State to come up with a tool that can be effectively used in ensuring a Finnish ownership in Finnish key companies” (Government Communications Unit, press release 322/2008).

Paul Krugman was awarded The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel "for his analysis of trade patterns and location of economic activity". While this prize is in each year given for an economist due to her/his notable earlier achievements, this tribute has also wider implications on the field. First of all, we may see it as recognition for the specific area of scholarly research; it pinpoints the topics and research results that are seen as providing significant advancement for our understanding of the economic activity. By so doing it also underlines the importance of related questions in the future research. One may even say that the prize helps to institutionalize certain research topics, approaches and theories both in- and outside of the academy. Thus, let us briefly consider some of such implications that Krugman's Nobel Prize could have.