One of the keynote speakers at this year’s International Summit of Co-operatives, Robert J. Schiller will be looking at state of the global economy. A financial economics scholar, Professor Schiller will deliver the Summit’s first conference on 7 October.
The discussion will be focused on sustainable prosperity and the challenges for the global economy. Panellists will try to assess what form the new global economy will take and how will the business world be impacted.
Robert J. Schiller is the 2013 Nobel Co-Laureate in Economics and Professor of Economics at Yale University. He received the award for his empirical analysis of asset prices. At the Summit’s round table he will be joined by Monique Leroux, President and chief executive of Desjardins Group and Wenyan Yang, chief of the Social perspective Branch of the Division for Social Policy and Development within the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations.
With 150 co-operators, economists and academics due to speak at the event, the Summit shows how the interest in the co-operative business model continues to increase.
"Co-operatives and credit unions are driven by both economic and social concerns. They care not only about the bottom lines of their businesses, but also about the needs of their members and the quality of life in their communities”, said Stéphane Bertrand, 2014 International Summit of Cooperatives Executive Director.
“They may well be the fastest growing sector of the economy in the next ten years. We believe that they are influential enough to drive the global economy towards a more humane world and they are more concerned about future generations."
Another panelist at the Summit, world-renowned economist Jeffery Sachs, will engage delegates in a discussion on how co-operatives could stand out in the transition to a sustainable economy.
This year’s Summit will be focusing on five different topics: developing co-operative and mutual enterprises; economics; financing and capitalisation; employment; food security and health and social care services. The second edition of the Summit, takes place on 6-9 October and builds on the success of the first Summit, which took place in 2012.
Photo: Robert J. Schiller
