Elinor Ostrom
Elinor Ostrom was a prominent American political economist and the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, awarded in 2009 for her pioneering work on economic governance, particularly concerning common resources. Common-pool resources, such as water, forests, and fisheries, are often believed to be susceptible to overexploitation—a concept known as the Tragedy of the Commons. However, Ostrom's extensive research revealed that many communities successfully manage these resources without the need for government intervention or privatization. She developed a framework known as institutional analysis and development to better understand the rules governing resource management, showing that local users often create more effective solutions than top-down regulations.
Ostrom's findings emphasize the complexity of resource management and provide a hopeful perspective on possible solutions to safeguard vital resources. Beyond her academic contributions, she was recognized as one of the world's most influential people, receiving various accolades throughout her career. Ostrom continued to engage in scholarly activities until her passing in 2012, leaving a lasting legacy in the field of economics and resource management.
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Elinor Ostrom
- Born: August 7, 1933
- Birthplace: Los Angeles, California
- Died: June 12, 2012
- Place of death: Bloomington, Indiana
Through her extensive empirical research, Ostrom showed that it is not inevitable that shared resources will be depleted by overuse.
In 2009, Elinor Ostrom was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences “for her analysis of economic governance, especially the commons.” The term “the commons” refers to resources that are available to all, such as water, forests, fisheries, and grazing land. It has often been feared that such shared resources are likely to be depleted by overuse (a phenomenon known as the tragedy of the commons), but Ostrom’s research uncovered numerous instances of commons that are well managed by users. Her findings therefore challenge the view that common-pool resources must be regulated by government or privately owned to be properly managed.
After receiving her PhD in political science from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1965, Ostrom took a teaching position at Indiana University, where she built her career. Through their research into the use of common-pool resources, Ostrom and her colleagues developed a framework, known as institutional analysis and development, to organize the rules governing common-pool resources. Utilizing this framework, Ostrom and others were able to gain insights into why some common-pool resources are well managed while others are not. Ostrom’s research brings order to the complex issues involved in the use of common-pool resources; her findings indicate that users of such resources often come up with better solutions for their management than those imposed by government. Although, as Ostrom noted, there are no easy, one-size-fits-all answers to the problem of the overexploitation of common-pool resources, her research provides hope and a framework that can be used in the search for solutions to protect these vital resources.
Continuing to write and lecture after receiving the Nobel Prize, Ostrom and her husband, Vincent, were given the University Medal by Indiana University in 2010 and Ostrom was included on Time magazine's list of the world's one hundred most influential people in 2012. Early that same year, Indiana University renamed the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis to honor Elinor and Vincent Ostrom. After a battle with cancer, Elinor Ostrom died in Bloomington, Indiana, on June 12, 2012, at the age of seventy-eight.
Bibliography
Cole, Daniel. "Elinor Ostrom Obituary." The Guardian, 13 June 2012, www.theguardian.com/science/2012/jun/13/elinor-ostrom. Accessed 15 Nov. 2017.
"Elinor Ostrom—Facts." Nobelprize.org, Nobel Media AB, www.nobelprize.org/nobel‗prizes/economic-sciences/laureates/2009/ostrom-facts.html. Accessed 15 Nov. 2017.
Rampell, Catherine. "Elinor Ostrom, Winner of Nobel in Economics, Dies at 78." The New York Times, 12 June 2012, www.nytimes.com/2012/06/13/business/elinor-ostrom-winner-of-nobel-in-economics-dies-at-78.html. Accessed 15 Nov. 2017.
Tarko, Vlad. Elinor Ostrom: An Intellectual Biography. Rowman and Littlefield, 2017.
Wall, Derek. Elinor Ostrom's Rules for Radicals: Cooperative Alternatives Beyond Markets and States. Pluto Press, 2017.