Elinor Ostrom, Winner of Nobel in Economics, Dies at 78

The cause was cancer, according to Indiana University, where she taught for many years.

Professor Ostrom�s work rebutted fundamental economic beliefs. But to say she was a dark horse for the 2009 economics Nobel is an understatement. Not because she was a woman � although women in the field are still rare � but because she was trained in political science.

Professor Ostrom�s prizewinning work examined how people collaborate and organize themselves to manage common resources like forests or fisheries, even when governments are not involved. The research overturned the conventional wisdom about the need for government regulation of public resources.

At least it did for the economists who knew who she was and had read her work.

�The announcement of her prize caused amazement to several economists, including some prominent colleagues, who had never even heard of her,� Avinash Dixit, a Princeton economics professor, said when introducing Professor Ostrom�s work at a luncheon in 2011. Usually, he noted, Nobel laureates need no introduction.

In fact, when the Nobel recipients were announced, some economists mistakenly thought the prize had gone to Bengt Holmstrom, an economist with a similar-sounding (and, to economists, much more recognizable) name. One prominent scholar acknowledged visiting Wikipedia to figure out who exactly she was.