Elinor Ostrom, the only woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize for
Economics died on June 12 in Indiana. According to various press
reports, Ostrom shocked her peers when she was catapulted to
fame, because, in a field mostly dominated by men, she reached
well beyond the usual mathematical modeling of economists.
Ostrom’s best-known research was on the management of the
commons. As noted in Slate, “Standard economic thinking about
commons focuses on the idea of a ‘tragedy of the commons’…”
According to many economists, individuals acting in their own
self-interest, would ultimately deplete a resource like a common
pasture, which is open to everyone. This idea was used to
demonstrate the need for government regulation or control by
private industry.