Nobel economics winners shocked and gratified

STOCKHOLM: A US professor who showed how common property might be more successfully managed became the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for economics yesterday, sharing this year's award with an American expert on conflict resolution.

Elinor Ostrom defied conventional wisdom with her studies that showed user-managed common property - such as fish stocks and woodland areas - more often than not were better run than standard theories supposed.

The previously accepted view was that such common property was poorly managed and would be better off either regulated centrally or privatized.