Subscription Center
Elinor Ostrom and Oliver E. Williamson win the prize for their analyses of cooperation and conflict in economic governance
The 2009 Nobel Prizes
Explore the advances that earned this year's crop of Nobelists one of the world's most famous prizes--and in some cases, read about the prizewinning discoveries as chronicled by the researchers themselves in Scientific American . All told, 143 Nobelists have written 232 articles for the magazine.
»
October 13, 2009
See what we're tweeting about
Dhunterauthor Nuevo Verdad: We Have Special Geologist Vision: Sometimes, science feels like you’ve been given a superpower, ... http://t.co/CiifD0lPrY
kahoakes You Didn't Have Any Lions to Run From, So You Clicked on This http://t.co/1g3BXRGCVr
notscientific The Muslim faith does not turn men to terror. By @mehdirhasan http://t.co/Hztr7t1dH7
Deadline: Jun 30 2013
Reward: $1,000,000 USD
This is a Reduction-to-Practice Challenge that requires written documentation and&
Deadline: Jun 29 2013
Reward: $7,000 USD
The Seeker for this Challenge desires proposals for chemical methods that could rapidly degrade a dilute aqueous solution
Powered By: 
YES! Send me a free issue of Scientific American with no obligation to continue the subscription. If I like it, I will be billed for the one-year subscription.
9 Comments
Add CommentNo nobel prize for Peter Schiff? He's the only economist I know who foresaw the housing bubble and he predicted the current economic situation. If Obama gets the peace prize, Schiff is more than
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this(premature submission there)... Schiff is more than qualified to win the noble in economics. Great clip here ->http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wU9BaAGENpo
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI welcome the coordination of cognitive science, evolutionary psychology, and political science with economics. For too long we've been in thrall to the overgeneralization and reductionism of economists who seem to understand mathematical calculus, but aren't able to comprehend the combinatorial explosion that makes it inapplicable to human interactions.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI am an illiterate about the nuances in Economic theory that won a Nobel for Eleanor. But at least the way the short report presented here makes me wonder when the centuries nomadic tradition was referred to. Those nomads were working in a bounty of resource situation and the methods evolved by them solve only resolution of "conflict of interest."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn situations where there is a resource crunch, as in developing countries, when the bearing capacity of the resource is far exceeded (whether it is a road for traffic or schools for education or grain for food etc.), there is a high "competition for resource." This does not get solved by the people themselves. External authority (state (?)) is required!
The same Peter Schiff who said that people should pull all their money out of the market and put it into gold because by Oct. 2009 the Dow would be below 7k? Is that who you want to win the Nobel prize? If Peter Schiff gets a Nobel for economics than Kent Hovind should get a Nobel for evolutionary biology.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe same Peter Schiff who six months ago was telling people to pull their money from the market and put it in gold? The same Peter Schiff who said that we weren't going to reach a bottom in the market for over a year, and that the Dow would be below 7k by Oct 2009? If Peter Schiff deserves a Nobel in economics than Kent Hovind deserves a Nobel for his outstanding work in evolutionary biology.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMaybe the more interesting aspect of the Mongolian nomad's tale is to examine why, when there would have been obvious short-term benefits available to herdsmen through the over-exploitation of grazing resources, with larger herds yielding greater profits, etc..., their society instead chose to ignore this immediate advantage in exchange for a longer-term, sustainable, approach to land use. Maybe there are lessons to be learnt from such strategies and we should be encouraging our future Nobel economists to examine human society, past and present, for further such insights.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPERFECT
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"Ostrom found that common property can be surprisingly well-managed, because users often establish rules to mitigate damage."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn other words, they form a mini-government to cover the protection of the resource. I think that's the point they overlooked. "Government" is thrown around so often today as a negative thing, but most democracies and republics follow the principle expressed in the Gettysburg Address: that they are "of the people, by the people and for the people" meaning they represent the collective will of the people. They are the rules and values that the society has agreed to live by. So, what they've really proven is that a properly implemented and regulated government is needed to protect resources....it's just very difficult to do on a large scale. :)