10/14/2009

Political scientist thrilled at mentor's Nobel Prize

BY FRANZ BROTZEN
Rice News staff

Rice Political Science Professor Rick Wilson was delighted to hear that Elinor Ostrom had won the 2009 Nobel Prize in economics. He has worked with Ostrom since his days as a graduate student at Indiana University. In fact, she served as an adviser on Wilson's doctoral dissertation, and the two have collaborated on research projects in the decades since then.


	Political Science Professor Rick Wilson, center, with Nobel Prize winner Elinor Ostrom, left, and her husband, Vincent.

Wilson praised "the brilliance of her teaching," but also stressed the groundbreaking nature of Ostrom's research, which ultimately led to the Nobel committee's Oct. 12 decision. She has been in the forefront of an "expansion of economics -- beyond narrow market systems," said Wilson, the Herbert S. Autrey Professor of Political Science and professor of statistics and of psychology. Ostrom's ability to transcend the boundaries of the social sciences, Wilson noted, is demonstrated by the fact that she won the Nobel Prize for economics even though she is a political scientist.

Ostrom has done pioneering work on the classic "tragedy of the commons" problem. In the problem, individuals acting rationally destroy a shared resource despite the knowledge that their actions are against their long-term interests. The most common response to the problem is government intervention to assure that the resource is properly managed. Ostrom challenged that view, Wilson explained, by suggesting instead that allowing the individuals most involved to build their own institutional solutions often leads to greater efficiency.

Thinking about local political and economic institutions has resulted in Ostrom exploring complex issues of sanctions, boundary rules and information links. The core of the work tries to understand how these institutions affect strategic action by individuals. Ostrom has not taken only a theoretical approach, Wilson said. Rather, she has tested her theories on water/irrigation problems in Nepal, forestry disputes in the Amazon and Uganda and the management of water resources in the Los Angeles basin. In all of these instances, she has added to the understanding of behavioral economics.

"She took me on as a project when I was in graduate school," Wilson recalled, "and instilled a sense of possibility in understanding a complicated social world." He said he learned from his former teacher not to look too narrowly at things and not be bound by narrow disciplinary boundaries. "I owe a heck of a lot to her," he added.