CRSP Researcher Wins Nobel Prize
Elinor Ostrom, a recipient of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Economics, is a researcher under one of the USAID-supported Collaborative Research Support Programs (CRSPs). Ostrom, the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for Economics in its 40 year history, received this award on October 12 for her work demonstrating that common property can be successfully managed by user associations.
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| Elinor Ostrom (front) with members of the Irrigation Management Systems Study Group during field work in Nepal. Photo taken in March, 1993. Copyright © Arizona State University |
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Ostrom’s research under the SANREM (Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resources Management) CRSP is closely related to this work. She is a principal investigator on a research effort to examine how alternative forest management policies and governance in developing countries affect the livelihoods of local forest users and protect the forests. Ostrom's work centers on how communities manage natural resources such as pastures, lakes, and forests. Though the approach in recent decades has been to regulate or limit the use of such resources or privatize them, Ostrom’s research finds that common property is often very well managed by the people who use it.
Ostrom shares the $1.4 million Nobel Prize with Oliver Williamson, a professor in the graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley. The Nobel committee cited Williamson "for his analysis of economic governance, especially the boundaries of the firm."
Ostrom is a professor of political science at Indiana University and founding director of the Center for the Study of Institutional Diversity at Arizona State University. Her book “Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action,” has been cited by scholars and reviewers for its significant contribution to literature on common ownership and management of natural resources. Ostrom received her Ph.D. in political science from UCLA in 1965. She is past president of the American Political Science Association, which honored her in 2005 with the James Madison Award; and past president of the International Association for the Study of Common Property. In 2008 she won the William H. Riker Prize in Political Science.
The SANREM CRSP is a partnership of 17 universities conducting applied research to develop knowledge and tools that promote environmentally sustainable agriculture and natural resource management. It is managed by Virginia Tech’s Office of International Research, Education, and Development (OIRED).
For more information see:
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economics/laureates/2009/
www.oired.vt.edu/sanremcrsp/
www.oired.vt.edu/sanremcrsp/menu_research/LTRA-1.Sept.2007.php
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