All of us at the Workshop would like to add our congratulations to Lin Ostrom for being selected as a recipient of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. This award is a well-deserved recognition of her pioneering research on the ways in which communities throughout the world have creatively devised methods to sustainably manage resources critical for their survival. In wide-ranging research programs in collaboration with scholars and students from many disciplines and countries, Lin has identified conditions under which community self-organization can be successful and highlighted potential threats to these arrangements. Her work has revolutionized the way scholars and practitioners understand the commons, in all of its myriad manifestations.
Lin shares this honor with Oliver Williamson, whose work has had a similar impact on our understanding of the way firms, markets and other economic organizations are constructed and operate. Both have helped to expand the scope of economic sciences to more effectively encompass the ever-expanding array of institutions of economic governance.
We encourage anyone interested in more information to read the prize committee’s excellent overviews of the contributions of these new laureates, with versions for the general public at
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economics/laureates/2009/info.pdf
and for the scientific community at
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economics/laureates/2009/ecoadv09.pdf.
Pictures of the winners at
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economics/laureates/2009/
Lin's press conference at
