Elinor Ostrom and Oliver Williamson Win Nobel Economics Prize

The 2009 Nobel prize for economics has been won by Elinor Ostrom, from Indiana, and Oliver Williamson, from California.

Photo: Elinor Ostrom and Oliver Williamson Win Nobel Economics Prize

Prof Ostrom, 76, the Arthur F. Bentley Professor of Political Science at Indiana University, is the first woman to win the prize since it was founded in 1968. She was the fifth woman to win a Nobel award this year – a record for the prize.

The Nobel jury at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm cited Prof Ostrom "for her analysis of economic governance" saying her work had demonstrated how common property can be successfully managed by groups using it.

The academy said Prof Williamson, 77, the Edgar F. Kaiser Professor Emeritus at the Haas School of Business in Berkeley, California, developed a theory where business firms serve as structures for conflict resolution.

"Over the last three decades, these seminal contributions have advanced economic governance research from the fringe to the forefront of scientific attention," the academy said.

The economics prize was the last Nobel award to be announced this year, Telegraph informs.

The award’s official name is “The Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.” The money, a gold medal and a diploma will be handed out at a ceremony in Stockholm on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Nobel’s death.

The economics prize last year was awarded to Paul Krugman, a professor at Princeton University and a columnist for The New York Times, for his theories on world trade.

From 1969 to 2008, the Nobel Prize for economics was awarded to 42 Americans, eight Britons, three Norwegians and two Swedes. Economists from Germany, France, the Netherlands, India, Israel, Canada and the former Soviet Union each won once, Bloomberg reports.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said the SwFr10 million (£880,000) award was given to Mr Williamson, in recognition of his theory on corporate conflict resolution, while Ms Ostrom was rewarded for showing how common property can be managed by user associations, Times Online reports.