NEW YORK, Dec. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Business has a lot to learn from the 2009 Nobel Prizes in Economic Sciences awarded today, say experts from The Conference Board.

Elinor Ostrom and Oliver E. Williamson have spent their careers researching how transactions are conducted within and between businesses, governments, and other agents. Their work has relevance not only for academia, but also for companies seeking ways to approach increasingly intertwined business concerns and societal issues.

Announcement of this year's unusual Nobel economics choices sparked extensive dialogue among a range of experts at The Conference Board, which operates at the intersections of economics, business, and society.

"The work of both laureates illustrates that markets and governments don't always provide the best solutions to many governance issues," said Bart van Ark, senior vice president and chief economist at The Conference Board. "Their work reaffirms just how important it is to business expansion that we keep pushing the limits of innovative and rigorous thinking."

Linda Barrington, managing director, human capital at The Conference Board and an economic historian, said, "In a world where ecological and intangible resources -- even public trust in private enterprise -- are suffering depletion, and businesses are struggling to define the boundaries of new organizational forms from global sourcing to corporate governance, reading the work of these two scholars with eyes and minds wide open may offer unexpected insights."

Click here (http://www.conference-board.org/publications/describe_ea.cfm?id=1720) to read more of these thoughts, which have been gathered into an Executive Action report. In recognition of the widespread relevance of this discussion, The Conference Board has made this report available to the public free of charge.

Source: The 2009 Nobel Prize in Economics: Reflections from The Conference Board, December, 2009.

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About The Conference Board

The Conference Board is a global, independent business membership and research association working in the public interest. Our mission is unique: To provide the world's leading organizations with the practical knowledge they need to improve their performance and better serve society. The Conference Board is a non-advocacy, not-for-profit entity holding 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt status in the United States. www.conference-board.org

SOURCE The Conference Board

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