The significance of Ostrom’s Prize

IU professor Elinor Ostrom’s selection as a 2009 recipient of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel is indicative of the changing times in which we are living in several important ways.

Most obviously, Ostrom’s honor of being the first female laureate in economics since the award’s inception in 1969 is indicative of the growing role played by women in traditionally male-dominated fields. Although the majority of past female Nobel laureates had been recipients of the Prizes in peace or literature, 2009 saw laureates in chemistry and physiology and medicine as well.

Also much-noted has been the positive light the award casts on IU, which has been traditionally less capable of retaining its most talented faculty than IU would like to be able.

Before this year, just one of IU’s seven Nobel laureates had been at the University at the time they were recognized. All of the others had left for or returned to other institutions.

Thus, Ostrom’s achievement of the Prize is a testament to the University’s improving ability to develop and hang on to top talent. Coming just months after the news that this year’s freshman class is the most academically well-qualified in the University’s history, this is yet another feather in the cap of an already “red hot” institution.

Additionally, because of the nature of Ostrom’s work and her position in the political science department, it is a demonstration of the increasing importance of interdisciplinary focus in research.

Previously, Ostrom herself has stressed the importance of developing an “interdisciplinary language” among researchers. This, she says, is necessary because the problems and issues with which they are dealing cross disciplinary lines and cannot be solved by looking exclusively through one prism.

Finally, the award is an indication of the increasing relevance of testing established theories about numerous economics against actual situations, especially as dozens of developing countries make their way out of poverty and into the globalized economy.
Nevertheless, in some ways, the Prize is a predictable continuation of long-established trends.

For example, the vast majority of Nobel laureates in economics (including all of them since 2005) have been Americans.

Also, this is far from the first prestigious award Ostrom has won. It follows both her 2001 induction into the National Academy of Sciences and her 2003 reception of a lifetime achievement award from the Atlas Economic Research Foundation in a long list of awards and accomplishments.