Only woman to get Nobel Prize for economics dies

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Elinor Ostrom, an Indiana University political scientist who is the only woman to have been awarded a Nobel Prize in economics, died Tuesday. She was 78....

This year's Nobel prize in economics was awarded to Oliver Williamson and Elinor Ostrom. But more precisely, this year's Nobel prize in economics was awarded to no one, because there is no such prize. Matt Yglesias explains:

The social science world awoke to sad news this morning: Elinor Ostrom, the Indiana University political scientist who won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2009, lost her battle with cancer this morning at a hospital in Bloomington, Indiana. Ostrom?s research focused on common-pool resources, like fish stocks, timber, or water. CPRs are similar to ...

It's a nod in the direction of social science, rather than economics per se.  It's another homage to the New Institutional Economics and also to Law and Economics.  It's rewarding larger rather than smaller ideas, practical economics rather than abstract theory.  It's a prize somewhat outside of the mainstream.  As you probably know by now, Ostrom is a political scientist and she has spent much of her career

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel for 2009 to Elinor Ostrom, Indiana University, USA, “for her analysis of economic governance, especially the commons” and Oliver E. Williamson, University of California, Berkeley, USA, “for his analysis of economic governance, especially the boundaries of the firm.”

… Oliver Williamson and Elinor Ostrom share the Swedish Central Bank Prize for Economics in Honor of Alfred Nobel. Alex Tabarrok explains Ostrom’s work and Paul Krugman tells you about Williamson. Osrtom is the first woman to win the prize and is also noteworthy for being a political scientist rather than an economist.

Elinor Ostrom, the first woman to win a Nobel Prize in Economics, speaks to host Michele Norris. Ostrom, a 76-year-old professor of political science at Indiana University, shares the $1.4 million prize with another American — Oliver Williamson of the University of California, Berkeley — for their work into economic governance. Ostrum was cited by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for her research into how natural resources or "common property can be successfully managed by user associations."