Nobel prizes

[Dave Backus]

This is a big day in the economics world, with the Nobel prizes
announced. The winners: Elinor Ostrom and Oliver Williamson. Ostrom
is a political scientist, so few of us know much about her work. But
here's a nice link from Marginal Revolution:

http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2009/10/elinor-ostrom-and-the-wellgoverned-commons.html

Williamson's work is on the nature of firms: why some transactions
are done in markets, and others inside firms where typically non-
market methods are used. It shows up in microeconomics and strategy
courses in MBA programs. The same blog has a nice writeup of his
work, too:

http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2009/10/oliver-williamson.html