Elinor Ostrom, Allmend, as in Switzerland

Elinor Ostrom, a third way in economy.

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Arthur F. Bentley Professor of Political Science Co-Director, Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis Professor of Public and Environmental Affairs, Part-Time Co-Director, Center for the Study of Institutions, Population, and Environmental Change (CIPEC) 408 N. Indiana Ave, Room 230A, Bloomington, IN 47408 Phone: (812) 855-0441 ostrom@indiana.edu

Allmend, as in Switzerland since more than 2'000 years Common land, an English development, was used extensively in England and Wales and in many former British colonies, for example in Ireland and the USA. All land in England and Wales is owned by someone, and in most cases that person has all the rights of exclusive ownership, to use the land as they wish. However, for common land the owner's rights are restricted, and other people (usually local residents) have some rights over the land. These people are known as commoners—the landowner retains other rights to the land, such as rights to minerals and large timber, and to any common rights left unexercised by the commoners. Today commons still exist in England, Wales, Scotland and USA, although their extent is much reduced from the millions of acres that existed prior to the 17th century[1]. The Allemensraetten (Freedom to roam) is still in use in in Scandinavia and a concept similar to the Commons ('Allmende', the German expression) is still in use in the alpine countries, especially in Switzerland "Allmend". Similar common property regimes are to be found as well in southern Asia (e.g. India and Nepal) and Latin America (e.g. Mexico, see ejido). Ostrom is considered one of the leading scholars in the study of common pool resources. In particular, Ostrom's work emphasizes how humans interact with ecosystems to maintain long-term sustainable resource yields. Common pool resources include many forests, fisheries, oil fields, grazing lands, and irrigation systems. Ostrom's work has considered how societies have developed diverse institutional arrangements for managing natural resources and avoiding ecosystem collapse in many cases, even though some arrangements have failed to prevent resource exhaustion. Her current work emphasizes the multifaceted nature of human–ecosystem interaction and argues against any singular "panacea" for individual social-ecological system problems. Elinor Ostrom participated in the United Nations University [1] – UNU-WIDER research project on Land Reform Revisited: Access to Land, Rural Poverty and Public Action. Her contribution resulted in a chapter, 'The Puzzle of Counterproductive Property Rights Reforms: A Conceptual Analysis' in Access to Land Rural Poverty and Public Action (2001), edited by Alain de Janvry, Gustavo Gordillo, Jean-Phillipe Platteau, and Elisabeth Sadoulet. Elinor Ostrom played a key role in the 2004 joint conference organized by [UNU-WIDER] [2]and the Expert Group on Development Issues (EGDI) of the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on 'Unlocking Human Potential: Linking the Informal and Formal Sectors'. The main conference output, Linking the Formal and Informal Economy: Concepts and Measures (2006) is co-edited by Basudeb Guha Khasnobis, Ravi Kanbur, and Elinor Ostrom Education Ph.D., UCLA, 1965 Professional Experience Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1991-present President, American Political Science Association, 1996-97 Member, Committee on National Urban Policy, National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council, 1985-88 President, Midwest Political Science Association, 1984-85 President, Public Choice Society, 1982-84 Vice president, American Political Science Association, 1975-76 Research Interests How do we integrate the research findings in cognitive science into a workable set of models for exploring and explaining human choices in various institutional settings, including: social dilemmas, collective choice arenas, bureaucracies, and complex multitiered public economies? How do institutions generate the information that individuals need to make decisions? What biases or lack of biases are built into various ways of making collective decisions? How are diverse preferences exaggerated or modified by interaction within diverse institutional structures? Representative Publications Ostrom, Elinor (1990). Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action. New York: Cambridge University Press. Ostrom, Elinor (1992). Crafting Institutions for Self-Gover ning Irrigation Systems. San Francisco: Institute for Contemporary Studies. Ostrom, E., Schroeder, L. & Wynne, S. (1993). Institutional Incentives and Sustainable Development: Infrastructure Policies in Perspective. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Ostrom, E., Walker, J. & Gardner, R. (1994). Rules, Games, and Common-Pool Resources. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

la femme du jour mardi13 octobre 2009

Première économiste nobellisée

LT

L'Américaine Elinor Ostrom a reçu le Prix Nobel d'économie.

Les liens

• Editorial. Un prix Nobel toujours plus politique

Depuis 1969, l'Académie des sciences de Suède décerne aussi un Prix Nobel d'économie. Il est formellement intitulé Prix de la Banque de Suède en mémoire d'Alfred Nobel. Comme pour les autres récompenses, son montant s'élève à 10 millions de couronnes suédoises (environ 1,5 million de francs), que les deux lauréats de cette année vont se partager.

Pour la première fois en économie, le Prix Nobel récompense une femme. Docteur en sciences politiques en 1965 à l'Université de Californie, Elinor Ostrom est née en 1933. Actuellement professeure à l'Université d'Indiana, elle codirige aussi le Cipec, le Centre pour l'étude du changement des institutions, des populations et du climat.

Le comité Nobel a amélioré lundi le record de lauréates, déjà battu cette année, avec cinq femmes Prix Nobel en une saison. Jeudi, l'Allemande d'origine roumaine Herta Müller avait été récompensée du Prix Nobel de littérature. Lundi dernier, deux femmes ont reçu le prix de médecine. Mercredi c'était au tour d'une Israélienne d'être lauréate en chimie. Le dernier record féminin, trois Prix Nobel, remonte à 2004. Au total, 40 femmes ont été lauréates du Prix Nobel.

Publicité

Elinor Ostrom partage le prix avec Oliver Williamson, lui aussi Américain et d'un an son aîné, qui a décroché son titre de docteur sur la côte Est, à l'Université Carnegie Mellon, en 1965. Il est aujourd'hui professeur émérite de l'Université de Berkeley (Californie).

En 2008, Paul Krugman avait reçu, seul, le Prix Nobel d'économie. Avant lui d'autres Américains ont été récompensés: Leonid Hurwicz, Eric Maskin et Roger Myerson en 2007, ou encore Edmund S. Phelps en 2006.

Prix Nobel mardi13 octobre 2009

Le comité veut souligner les limites du marché

Frédéric Lelièvre

Le prix soutenu par la Banque de Suède va à deux Américains spécialistes de la coopération et des entreprises

Les liens

• Editorial. Un prix Nobel toujours plus politique

Publicité

Une première. Une femme a reçu le Prix Nobel d'économie. Lundi, la récompense, financée par la Banque de Suède en mémoire d'Alfred Nobel, a été attribuée à l'Américaine Elinor Ostrom et à son compatriote Oliver Williamson. Parce que la science économique «doit aller au-delà» de la théorie des marchés, et que ces deux chercheurs ont séparément aidé à comprendre «l'organisation de la coopération».