IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/jinsec/v9y2013i04p449-468_00.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Elinor Ostrom and the robust political economy of common-pool resources

Author

Listed:
  • PENNINGTON, MARK

Abstract

This paper situates Elinor Ostrom's work on common-pool resource management in the tradition of ‘robust political economy’. Ostrom's analysis of bottom-up governance institutions is shown to recognise that such arrangements though imperfect are better placed to cope with bounded rationality and incentive compatibility problems in the management of smaller- and medium-scale common-pool resources. While Ostrom's work provides an analytical framework to explain the success of these arrangements, however, the paper argues that it lacks a robust account of when, if ever, top-down governance arrangements are to be preferred.

Suggested Citation

  • Pennington, Mark, 2013. "Elinor Ostrom and the robust political economy of common-pool resources," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 9(4), pages 449-468, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:jinsec:v:9:y:2013:i:04:p:449-468_00
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S1744137413000258/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Peter Leeson & J. Subrick, 2006. "Robust political economy," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 19(2), pages 107-111, June.
    2. Peter Boettke & Christopher Coyne & Peter Leeson, 2007. "Saving government failure theory from itself: recasting political economy from an Austrian perspective," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 18(2), pages 127-143, June.
    3. Dieter Helm, 2010. "Government failure, rent-seeking, and capture: the design of climate change policy," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 26(2), pages 182-196, Summer.
    4. Elinor Ostrom, 2014. "A Polycentric Approach For Coping With Climate Change," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 15(1), pages 97-134, May.
    5. Leeson, Peter T., 2007. "Better off stateless: Somalia before and after government collapse," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 689-710, December.
    6. Elinor Ostrom, 2010. "A Polycentric Approach for Coping with Climate Change," World Bank Publications - Reports 9034, The World Bank Group.
    7. John Aldrich, 2010. "Elinor Ostrom and the “just right” solution," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 143(3), pages 269-273, June.
    8. Peter Boettke & Christopher Coyne & Peter Leeson, 2011. "Quasimarket failure," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 149(1), pages 209-224, October.
    9. Peter Kurrild-Klitgaard, 2010. "Exit, collective action and polycentric political systems," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 143(3), pages 339-352, June.
    10. McGinnis, Michael D., 2005. "Beyond individualism and spontaneity: Comments on Peter Boettke and Christopher Coyne," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 57(2), pages 167-172, June.
    11. Demsetz, Harold, 1969. "Information and Efficiency: Another Viewpoint," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 12(1), pages 1-22, April.
    12. Gerd Gigerenzer & Reinhard Selten (ed.), 2002. "Bounded Rationality: The Adaptive Toolbox," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262571641, December.
    13. Anderson, Terry L & Hill, Peter J, 1975. "The Evolution of Property Rights: A Study of the American West," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 18(1), pages 163-179, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ermanno Tortia, 2017. "The Firm as a Common. The Case of the Accumulation and Use of Capital Resources in Co-operative Enterprises," Euricse Working Papers 1790, Euricse (European Research Institute on Cooperative and Social Enterprises).
    2. Darcy W. E. Allen & Chris Berg & Aaron M. Lane & Trent MacDonald & Jason Potts, 2023. "The exchange theory of web3 governance," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 76(4), pages 659-675, November.
    3. Meina Cai & Ilia Murtazashvili & Jennifer Murtazashvili & Raufhon Salahodjaev, 2020. "Individualism and governance of the commons," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 184(1), pages 175-195, July.
    4. Jordan K. Lofthouse & Roberta Q. Herzberg, 2023. "The Continuing Case for a Polycentric Approach for Coping with Climate Change," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-24, February.
    5. Sanderson, Marie & Allen, Pauline & Moran, Valerie & McDermott, Imelda & Osipovic, Dorota, 2020. "Agreeing the allocation of scarce resources in the English NHS: Ostrom, common pool resources and the role of the state," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 250(C).
    6. Mark Pennington, 2015. "Realistic Idealism and The Project of Political Economy," Economic Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(3), pages 366-379, October.
    7. Lin, Wanlin & Lin, George C.S., 2023. "Strategizing actors and agents in the functioning of informal property Rights: The tragicomedy of the extralegal housing market in China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    8. Ermanno C. Tortia, 2018. "The Firm as a Common. Non-Divided Ownership, Patrimonial Stability and Longevity of Co-Operative Enterprises," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-18, March.
    9. Skarbek, Emily C., 2016. "Aid, ethics, and the Samaritan's dilemma: strategic courage in constitutional entrepreneurship," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 12(2), pages 371-393, June.
    10. Jennifer H. Allen & David E. Ervin & George B. Frisvold & James T. Brosnan & James D. McCurdy & Rebecca G. Bowling & Aaron J. Patton & Matthew T. Elmore & Travis W. Gannon & Lambert B. McCarty & Patri, 2022. "Herbicide-Resistance in Turf Systems: Insights and Options for Managing Complexity," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-17, October.
    11. Andrew David Allan Smith, 2016. "The Use and Abuse of Environmental Knowledge: A Bloomington School Interpretation of the Canadian Fisheries Act of 1868," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 29(2), pages 139-161, June.
    12. Harris,Colin & Cai,Meina & Murtazashvili,Ilia & Murtazashvili,Jennifer Brick, 2020. "The Origins and Consequences of Property Rights," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781108969055, November.
    13. Bustamante, Pedro & Gomez, Marcela & Murtazashvili, Ilia & Weiss, Martin, 2020. "Spectrum anarchy: why self-governance of the radio spectrum works better than we think," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 16(6), pages 863-882, December.
    14. Music, Janet & Finch, Erica & Gone, Pallavi & Toze, Sandra & Charlebois, Sylvain & Mullins, Lisa, 2021. "Pandemic Victory Gardens: Potential for local land use policies," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Harris,Colin & Cai,Meina & Murtazashvili,Ilia & Murtazashvili,Jennifer Brick, 2020. "The Origins and Consequences of Property Rights," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781108969055, November.
    2. Kärnä, Anders & Karlsson, Johan & Engberg, Erik & Svensson, Peter, 2020. "Political Failure: A Missing Piece in Innovation Policy Analysis," Working Paper Series 1334, Research Institute of Industrial Economics, revised 21 Apr 2022.
    3. Meina Cai & Ilia Murtazashvili & Jennifer Murtazashvili & Raufhon Salahodjaev, 2020. "Individualism and governance of the commons," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 184(1), pages 175-195, July.
    4. Glenn Furton & Adam Martin, 2019. "Beyond market failure and government failure," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 178(1), pages 197-216, January.
    5. Charles Roger & Thomas Hale & Liliana Andonova, 2017. "The Comparative Politics of Transnational Climate Governance," International Interactions, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(1), pages 1-25, January.
    6. Jaime de Melo & Mariana Vijil, 2014. "Barriers to Trade in Environmental Goods and Environmental Services: How Important Are They? How Much Progress at Reducing Them?," Working Papers 2014.36, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    7. Stefano Carattini & Andrea Baranzini & Philippe Thalmann & Frédéric Varone & Frank Vöhringer, 2017. "Green Taxes in a Post-Paris World: Are Millions of Nays Inevitable?," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 68(1), pages 97-128, September.
    8. Daniel Fitzpatrick & Rebecca Monson, 2022. "Property rights and climate migration: Adaptive governance in the South Pacific," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(2), pages 519-535, April.
    9. N. Jones & J. Clark, 2014. "Social capital and the public acceptability of climate change adaptation policies: a case study in Romney Marsh, UK," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 123(2), pages 133-145, March.
    10. Volland, Benjamin, 2017. "The role of risk and trust attitudes in explaining residential energy demand: Evidence from the United Kingdom," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 14-30.
    11. Carattini, Stefano & Fankhauser, Sam & Gao, Jianjian & Gennaioli, Caterina & Panzarasa, Pietro, 2023. "What does network analysis teach us about international environmental cooperation?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 205(C).
    12. Sebastian Levi & Christian Flachsland & Michael Jakob, 2020. "Political Economy Determinants of Carbon Pricing," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 20(2), pages 128-156, May.
    13. Arif Rahman & Aneel Salman, 2013. "A District Level Climate Change Vulnerability Index of Pakistan," CEECC Working Paper 2013:05, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics.
    14. Yildiz, Özgür, 2014. "Lehren aus der Verhaltensökonomik für die Gestaltung umweltpolitischer Maßnahmen [Lessons from behavioral economics for the design of environmental policy measures]," MPRA Paper 59360, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Sovacool, Benjamin K. & Martiskainen, Mari, 2020. "Hot transformations: Governing rapid and deep household heating transitions in China, Denmark, Finland and the United Kingdom," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    16. Wang, Derek D. & Sueyoshi, Toshiyuki, 2018. "Climate change mitigation targets set by global firms: Overview and implications for renewable energy," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 386-398.
    17. W. A. Brock & A. Xepapadeas, 2015. "Modeling Coupled Climate, Ecosystems, and Economic Systems," Working Papers 2015.66, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    18. Antoine Godin & Anda David & Oskar Lecuyer & Stéphanie Leyronas, 2022. "A strong sustainability approach to development trajectories," European Journal of Economics and Economic Policies: Intervention, Edward Elgar Publishing, vol. 19(3), pages 381-396, December.
    19. Patrick Messerlin, 2010. "Climate change and trade policy: From mutual destruction to mutual support," Working Papers hal-00972994, HAL.
    20. Jayme Walenta, 2020. "Climate risk assessments and science‐based targets: A review of emerging private sector climate action tools," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 11(2), March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cup:jinsec:v:9:y:2013:i:04:p:449-468_00. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/joi .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.