Faculty Viewpoints

A host of studies and academic theories that apply psychological insights to economic behavior have been grouped under the label "behavioral." Is this growing field changing how the economy is studied — and how it functions?

Deborah S. Davis, a China expert and professor of sociology at Yale, discusses a wide range of issues regarding China and globalization—from the nation's growing economic power to its role in addressing worldwide environmental problems.

One problem that has come up throughout this issue is how to enforce fair rules throughout a global system when most enforcement mechanisms are nation-based. Given how powerful the forces of globalization are, do we need a new global regulator?

Nigeria’s film industry, often called Nollywood, produced 1,687 feature films in 2007. That’s more movies than were made in India and the United States combined. In a country that has suffered from decades of corruption and a failure to translate significant oil wealth into a higher standard of living for the majority of people, this homegrown enterprise has brought Nigeria a new sort of attention in recent years.

American pop music blaring from speakers in North Africa. Indian novels being read on the subway in New York City. Has cultural production become as widely dispersed as the supply chain?

Depending on where you stand, globalization can mean factory jobs in Thailand or cheap goods at the mall; a world of choices or the homogenization of pop culture. Scholars from the fields of economics, sociology, and political science discuss the growing web of connections transforming commerce and culture around the world.

Responding to Q4's conversation "Did innovation cause the credit crisis?" Rick Antle, William S. Beinecke Professor of Accounting at Yale SOM, puts accounting changes and their role in the current financial turmoil in context.

With notable prescience, Shyam Sunder, the James L. Frank Professor of Accounting, Economics, and Finance at Yale SOM co-authored an editorial in the Financial Times with Stella Fearnley of Bournemouth University on August 23, 2007, warning of dangers from converging accounting models.

Sovereign wealth funds have become a source of controversy. They have the size — several trillion dollars and growing — to swing or stabilize markets. Meanwhile, their sometimes secretive strategies have invited worries that they could be used as tools of government policy. Jeffrey E. Garten, former SOM dean and former undersecretary of commerce for international trade, talked to Ng Kok Song, the managing director and group chief investment officer at the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation, about how one of the world’s largest SWFs is run.

The nonprofit sector is developing tools for financing and managing the organization that come largely from the for-profit world. Clara Miller, president and CEO of the Nonprofit Finance Fund discusses both the need for more financial savvy in the nonprofit realm as well as the pitfalls of an overly commercial mindset.