What’s called the economics Nobel is actually a memorial award, created in 1969 by the Swedish Central Bank, somewhat distinct from the others. It went today to an economist and a political scientist who study the ways economic coherence sometimes evolves even if free market policies are not strictly followed.

One of the recipients, Elinor Ostrom, is a director at ASU’s Center for the Study of Institutional Diversity, though she apparently actually teaches at Indiana. From the NYT:

In its announcement, the committee said Ms. Ostrom “has challenged the conventional wisdom that common property is poorly managed and should be either regulated by central authorities or privatized. Based on numerous studies of user-managed fish stocks, pastures, woods, lakes, and groundwater basins, Ostrom concludes that the outcomes are, more often than not, better than predicted by standard theories.”
[…]
Ms. Ostrom, 76, was born in Los Angeles, and received her Ph.D. in political science in 1965 from the University of California, Los Angeles. She is the Arthur F. Bentley professor of political science at Indiana University, Bloomington. She is also co-director of the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis.

Cruelly, the paper doesn’t mention ASU. ASU itself claims her as a “research professor.” The other winner was Oliver Williamson, from Berkeley.

From the EVT:

Arizona State spokesman Virgil Renzulli says Ostrom is working at Indiana University this semester but also holds a research professorship at ASU.

She founded Arizona State’s Center for the Study of Institutional Diversity in 2008.

The paper has this Associated Press detail about her work:

Ostrom devoted her career to studying the interaction of people and natural resources. One notable publication she wrote in 1990 examined both successful and unsuccessful ways of governing natural resources — forests, fisheries, oil fields, grazing lands and irrigation systems — that are used by individuals.

Ostrom’s work challenged conventional wisdom, showing that common resources can be successfully managed without privatization or government regulation.

To explain her ideas, the academy cited an example about dams in Nepal that Ostrom used in her 1990 book “Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action.”

Local people had for many years successfully managed irrigation systems to allocate water between users, but then the government decided to build modern dams made of concrete and steel with the help of foreign donors.

“Despite flawless engineering, many of these projects have ended in failure,” the academy said.

That was because the new, modern dams cut out communications and ties between the users. The new dams required little maintenance whereas the earthen local dams forced users to work together to keep them functional.