	Fri, Feb 10, 2012

Nobel Laureate and Canadian researcher share Decent Work Research prize

New Delhi, Thu, 05 Jun 2008 NI Wire

The UN International Labour Organisation (ILO) has announced to honour the ILO Decent Work Research Prize 2008 to Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and leading Canadian labour researcher Harry Arthurs.

The jury of eminent international experts on labour and social policy issues named Professor Stiglitz, of Columbia University, New York, for his extraordinary lifetime contribution to knowledge on the central concerns of the ILO and its constituents reflecting advances in understanding of different dimensions of decent work.

Professor Stiglitz is also Chair of Columbia University’s Committee on Global Thought, former Chief Economist of the World Bank and a member of the World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization convened by the ILO. Stiglitz, who received the Nobel Prize in economics in 2001, said that being selected for the Decent Work Research Prize was “a fantastic honour”.

Professor Harry Arthurs, former Dean of Osgoode Hall Law School at York University in Toronto, Canada and former President of the University, was cited for a major specific contribution to the understanding of socio-economic relationships and policy instruments for the advancement of decent work.

Professor Arthurs, Canada’s leading labour law academic, said that “for a labour law scholar, this is truly the most coveted prize”.

He is also the author of a report to the Canadian government on ‘Fairness at Work. Federal Labour Standards for the 21st Century’submitted in 2006.

Decent Work Research Prize:

The International Institute for Labour Studies (IILS) on October 2006 created an annual research prize to reward outstanding contributions to the advancement of knowledge on its central goal of 'decent work for all'.

Prize winners are selected by a five-member jury consisting of eminent personalities with an international reputation and proven expertise in labour and social policy issues.

The ILO Decent Work Research Prize entails a financial award of US$10,000, to be shared by the winners. It is managed by the ILO's International Institute for Labour Studies which was established in 1960 as a centre for advanced studies in the social and labour field.

The first two recipients of the prize in 2007 were Nelson Mandela, former President of the Republic of South Africa and Nobel Peace Laureate, and Professor Carmelo Mesa-Lago Professor Emeritus on Economics and Latin American Studies of the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.

For more information on the ILO Decent Work Research Prize, please see www.ilo.org/inst

Source: ILO Press Statement