Elinor Ostrom

Political economist who showed communities govern commons without markets or states; 2009 Nobel laureate.

Specifications & Metrics

lifespan

1933-2012

nationality

American

school

Institutional

nobel year

2009

Core Principles & Analysis

• Governing the Commons (1990) documented durable community fishery, forest, and irrigation regimes.
• She distilled eight design principles that recur where common-pool institutions survive.
• She shared the 2009 Nobel with Oliver Williamson and was the economics prize's first woman laureate.

Sources

• NobelPrize.org: Elinor Ostrom, Facts