Elinor Ostrom and Oliver Williamson Win Nobel Prize
For the first time, a woman has won a share of the Nobel Prize for economics.
The 2009 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics will be shared by Elinor Ostrom and Oliver E. Williamson. Ostrom, professor of political science and professor at the School of Public and Environmental Affairs, both at Indiana University at Bloomington, was honored for “her analysis of economic governance, especially the commons.” She is also the founding director of the Center for the Study of Institutional Diversity, at Arizona State University. Williamson, professor emeritus of business, economics and law at the University of California at Berkeley, was honored “for his analysis of economic governance, especially the boundaries of the firm.”
This breaks a recent trend of awarding prizes on spec. One half expected the award to go to a PhD candidate with a really nifty dissertation proposal.
Well, the Nobel Prizes in the Sciences have always been pretty strong, but the Economics prize isn’t much better than the Peace Prize, considering how many Nobel Lauretes in Economics have been discredited by that damnable reality.
Of course, I consider economics to be barely a step above witchcraft and chiropracty in terms of empirical merit so your mileage may vary.
Some pedant will probably point out that there’s no such thing as a Nobel Prize in Economics, but it sure won’t be me.
… Re: Knapp, here of late, I’ve thought we could have the Lit laureate make economic predictions, and the Econ winner try to write stories, and get equally good results.
There’s no such thing as a Nobel Prize in Economics.
Alex, I very rarely agree with you wholeheartedly. Have yourself a metaphorical cognac and cigar on me.