Effusive Economic Excitement!

Thanks to Telegraph.co.uk

We at US Democrazy are proud to announce that two Americans have won the Nobel Prize in Economics! (and no, one of them is not Barack Obama)

So who are these excitingly erudite epic economists?

One was (drum-roll please) Oliver Williamson, of the University of California, Berkeley (standing ovation!).

The other great economist was, well… not an economist at all (okay, now you can sit down).

Elinor Ostrom is not only the first woman but also the first political scientist (gasp) to win the prize.

So how do the scholars of the dismal science feel about a political scientist stealing earning their prize?

Well, Steven D. Levitt, of the NY Times, thinks

the economics profession is going to hate the prize going to Ostrom even more than Republicans hated the Peace prize going to Obama.

Whoa! That’s some serious economic professional hatred!

Paul Krugman, last year’s winner and economic superhero, however has been more cordial. He congratulated both of them noting that he

wasn’t familiar with Ostrom’s work, but even a quick scan shows why she shared the prize.

But enough about this questioning of Ostrom’s field of study…when it comes to the Nobel Prize we all know it’s the research that counts!

What did these folks do to earn the big prize?

Williamson founded

organizational economics — the study of how institutions are created and developed and how they affect economic growth

This is an area of economics that has gained interest since the recent financial fun and games.

Ostrom’s work

shows that common resources can be shared and managed through various institutional mechanisms, but also shows that there is nothing inevitable about this outcome.

Sounds pretty complicated impressive to us. For more voices about this year’s prize check out the Economix blog.

Congratulations are in order for this year’s winners (though we had $5 on Obama sweeping the awards).