The Nobel Prize for Economics did not make its customary trip to the free market apostles at the University of Chicago. Instead it recognized two things not always understood by economists: women and the public interest in common resources. The Nobel panel chose two American professors: Elinor Ostrom from Indiana University and Oliver Williamson from Berkeley, part of the University of California. Ostrom has specialized in the field of common-pool resources, which can suffer from congestion and over-use. Her work was developed from a study of dams in Nepal and can be applied to many areas of  sustainable development such as fishing grounds and bio-diversity. Her work stresses that local communities often manage resources better than government bureaucracies.

Williamson has focused on the importance of transaction costs and developed a critique of the view that corporations are solely driven by the profit motive. Both economists deal with institutions as complex bodies with sometimes conflicting aims. The Nobel panel denied being greatly influenced by the current economic crisis but it might well have decided it was not the right time to again reward the Chicago School of economics.

Links: Nobel Prize in Economics

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