Nobel

After the so-called peace prize and last year's economics prize I was ready to write off the Nobel awards completely. However this year the economics award is terrific. Oliver Williamson and Elinor Ostrom. Both have examined institutions and their role in growth, development, and just about everything else. Ostrom provided empirical research showing that the commons problem was not one that necessarily required state action. Individuals are able to devise methods dealing with common ownership in a variety of settings. I use this work to support my own view that problems like the prisoner's dilemma, commons, public goods, asymmetric information, lock in, etc., are not market failures. People will devise solutions to such problems in most cases.