A Carleton economics professor, along with her colleagues, was recently honoured with an EPPY Award for her work on a groundbreaking business and economics blog. Frances Woolley blogs for the Globe and Mail’s Economy Lab, which is part of the Globe’s Report on Business. The site took the award for Best Business Blog (with one million unique monthly visitors and over).
The EPPYs are presented annually by Editor & Publisher magazine. Now in its 16th year, the awards honour the best media-affiliated websites across 43 categories. Economy Lab had to best the likes of the Boston Globe to take the crown in its category.
Woolley has been a part of the blog for just over a year. While some of her posts cover conventional topics in economics such as financial literacy, harmonized sales tax, income splitting and smart meters, she also covers issues that skim the economic fringes. One such post looked at research that drew a connection between male dinosaur egg collectors, physical attraction and materialism. “Findings goods that are beautiful and hard to obtain shows (a man) is capable of putting an effort into acquiring things for his spouse,” she wrote.
She’s worked on a host of other unconventional post topics, including the growing cold war between snowshoeing enthusiasts and cross-country skiers, the economics of Halloween decorations and an ode to the sustainable nature of Mason jars. A blog, according to Woolley, “is basically just a very public intellectual diary.”
Woolley’s penchant for mining the more curious side of economics is also reflected in her other blogging gig at Worthwhile Canadian Initiative. She shares the blog with Carleton Economics Professor Nick Rowe and a small contingent of Canadian academic economists. The site’s constant stream of content has earned it a strong stable of readers and commenters.
“Sometimes, it’s just for fun,” said Woolley when asked about the motivations behind her posts. “And sometimes it’s about sharing ideas, whether that’s the latest research findings, or showing how economics can help people understand everyday life.”
Woolley’s research on taxation and the family was awarded the Purvis Prize in 2001 and the John Vanderkamp Award in 1997. She holds an undergraduate degree from Simon Fraser University, a Master’s from Queen’s and a doctorate from the London School of Economics.
About the EPPY Awards:
Entries in the EPPY Awards are judged by a panel of notable figures in the media industry, chosen by the staff of Editor & Publisher. More than 60 industry experts and media specialists from the business and academic sectors judge the entries. Categories are judged on criteria such as design, ease of use, comprehensiveness, and timeliness, with special attention to each entrant’s value added through the unique attributes of interactivity. In a typical year, there are more than 400 entries representing more than 150 websites. For more information on the EPPY Awards, visit www.eppyawards.com.
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For more information:
Chris Cline
Media Relations
Carleton University
613-520-2600, ext. 1391
christopher_cline@carleton.ca
