PROFESSOR ELINOR OSTROM AND THE 2009 NOBEL PRIZE FOR ECONOMICS

That this House warmly welcomes the award of the 2009 Nobel Prize for Economics in October to the co-operative theorist and researcher, Professor Elinor Ostrom of Indiana University; is especially pleased that, albeit far too late, she is the first woman to win this esteemed prize; notes Professor Ostrom has been recognised for integrating research and scholarship from economics, political sciences and sociology, creating an inter-disciplinary fusion enhancing the understanding of poverty and the distribution of resources; agrees with Professor Ostrom that steps towards agreement on social differences can be successfully taken at family, community, civic and national level; further agrees with her judgment that co-operative systems of management succeed in contexts where market theorists long predicted failure; also agrees with the observation of Ed Mayo, the chief executive designate of Co-operatives UK, in The Guardian on 17 October 2009 that Professor Ostrom has demonstrated `that human behaviour in our capacity to collaborate is so much richer and more creative that the traditional theorists of the dismal science of economics would have us believe'; and calls on the Government to adapt Professor Ostrom's principles into its own economic policies.