The Economics Nobel Prize Winners Are Now Available for Free

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences recently awarded a new Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel (in plain English, that is the Nobel Prize in Economics). One of the two winners, Elinor Ostrom, is the first woman ever to win the prize. But that is not the most amazing fact; what is really incredible is that anyone can now know [tricky alliteration] about the winners, their life, their accomplishments, and why they matter. There was a time when only few would learn about laureates in economics sciences and then it would be many years after they won the prize, probably in a dusty academic book or through an old professor. Let us all be grateful that today we can know the winners instantly and, more importantly, we can learn about them and their work effortlessly and for free. For instance, consider Ms. Ostrom. She has helped set up a free enormous data base called “Digital Library Of The Commons Repository” that lists all the research that she and her colleagues have done and that earned her the prize. In addition, you can watch her explain her research and why it matters. Also, the Nobel Prize website is superb; it lists all the previous winners, explains their accomplishments, features video interviews, and lets you access winners’ acceptance speeches and other important documents. If you are into trivia, there is data on the oldest and youngest winners. Gå lära sig!