This year the Nobel prizes have arrived full of surprises. On the one hand, a Nobel peace prize for a president that has been in office for less than a year and whose country is still leading wars on Irak and Afganistan. A Nobel prize on noble intentions. Mankiw’s blog post sumarizes it nicely. On the other hand, after a whole history of imbalances, the Nobel prize in economics goes to a woman, for the first time. And not only a woman but to a political scientist whose work is radically opposed to the neoclassical view of the economy. Elinor Ostrom instead of relying in the individual’s own self-interest, her work depends on the ability of people to come together to preserve their collective resources. She has proven that Hardin’s dilemma of the commons does not have to end as a tragedy.
At the end the hope is that Obama’s prize serves not only as an anti Bush message but also serves as a reason to convert noble iniciatives into achievements. And that Ostrom’s prize serves as start in a process of a more inclusive prize that considers also alternative streams of thought.
Publicly Economic 
Leave a comment