Berkeley Professor Wins Nobel Prize
Date Added Monday, October 12, 2009 | 11:57 am
Last Updated Monday, October 12, 2009 | 12:31 pm
Category: News > University > Academics and Administration
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Comments (UC Berkeley professor Oliver Williamson won the Nobel Prize for Economics today for his work on new ways of looking at how businesses interact.
The last time UC Berkeley has won a Nobel Prize in Economics was in 2001 for George Akerlof's work on unequal access to information in the marketplace. Akerlof was present at the press conference for Williamson's award. Physics professor George Smoot won the prize in 2006.
Williamson shares the award with Indiana University's Elinor Ostrom for her work on common property of user associations such as ground water basins or fish stocks.
Williamson's research examined the relationship between production within a company versus buying on the open market.
According to a statement from the Nobel Prize committee, both in-house ownership and shopping in the market act as methods businesses use to maximize profits and minimize risk. Markets, while useful for finding the lowest price, are hindered by excessive haggling. In-house production ensures more reliability, but is less flexible.
Williamson's predictions of the likelihood of a firm to behave in one manner or the other have been confirmed through various economic data.
Contact George Ashworth at gashworth@dailycal.org.
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