Oliver Williamson, 1932-2020; and Alberto Alesina, 1957-2020

We had a double dose of sad news over the last few days, first with the passing of 2009 Nobel prize winner Oliver Williamson, and then with the passing of Harvard University political economist Alberto Alesina. Williamson was 87, while Alesina was just 63 years young.

Williamson is best known for his work on transaction cost economics, industrial organisation, and the theory of the firm. My ECONS102 students get the very briefest of introductions to his work on transaction costs, which is important to understanding societal and political organisation, as well as the structure of firms.

Alesina is best known for his work on political economy and economic systems, and I really enjoyed his 1997 article with Enrico Spolaore on the optimal number and size of countries, published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics (ungated version here). I've previously blogged about some of his research (see here and here).

You might not think that these two great economists shared much in common, but A Fine Theorem has an excellent article that links both of them:

While one is most famous for the microeconomics of the firm, and the other for political economy, there is in fact a tight link between their research agendas. They have attempted to open “black boxes” in economic modeling – about why firms organize the way they do, and the nature of political constraints on economic activity – to clarify otherwise strange differences in how firms and governments behave.

That article is excellent in explaining the importance of the research of each of them. Haas News has more detail on the life and work of Williamson, while the Washington Post has an excellent obituary for Alesina. They will both be missed.