This morning, two U.S. economists, Elinor Ostrom and Oliver Williamson, were awarded the Nobel Prize in economics. Both study economic governance and individual decision-making. Additionally, Ostrom is the first woman to win the prize for economics.
In an editorial in Forbes, John V.C. Nye, professor of economics at George Mason University, explains how Ostrom and Williamson have contributed to the subject:
Both can be seen as pioneers in understanding how markets work in the real world where transactions costs are high, establishing smoothly functioning markets is costly, information is incomplete, and hiring and production options are limited. They show how firms, communities and organizations come to solve these problems absent government regulation and how the choices they make can be disrupted or worsened by bad state policy or sustained by good rules that promote stable property rights and reliable contracts.
Ostrom’s and Williamson’s works relate to the Show-Me Institute’s tenets of limited government, property rights, and informed state policy. Congratulations to them both.
