Professor Ostrom is interested in exploring how
institutional rules affect the structure of action situations
within which individuals face incentives, make choices, and
jointly affect each other. Problems involving collective goods
and common-pool resource systems, and how various types of
institutions enhance or detract from the capabilities of
individuals to achieve equitable, workable, efficient
solutions are a central theoretical concern. In urban settings
she has been interested in the problems of collective action
where citizens face problems of crime, poor education, and
deteriorating environmental conditions.
She is also interested in the same problems as they relate to resource problems in the Third World, particularly problems of collective action
related to forests, fisheries, grazing areas, agricultural
lands, and water systems. A major study of institutions and
forests is being initiated as part of an effort to study the
inter-relationships between local and global commons.
Professor Ostrom is currently working with colleagues in
several tropical countries to investigate the impacts of
diverse institutional arrangements on forest conditions and on
global environmental change. The Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis emphasizes theory and its application to
policy-related research. Research focuses on the effect of
institutional arrangements upon the incentives that people
face and consequently upon individuals' behavior. Both micro
and macro analyses of institutions in diverse countries are
conducted by Research Associates, Visiting Scholars and
Indiana University students.
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