Liberty,civility,opportunity.

Honoring Elinor Ostrom

The institute is named in honour of Elinor Ostrom, Professor of Political Economy, holder of the Arthur F. Bentley Chair of the University of Indiana and first woman ever awarded with a Nobel Prize. Doctor Honoris Causa for universities in Berlin, Uppsala, Montpellier, Valencia, Trondheim, Lulea, Oslo, Michigan, Montreal and New Delhi, Ostrom was one of the most recognized academics in the field of the New Institutional Economy. Using a both heterodox and antidogmatic approach, her work develops new institutional arrangements for the sustainable management of communal resources, such as the Valencia Water Court.

Ostrom teaches us the value of diversity and regulatory flexibility through decentralized experimentation and evaluation of public policies. Influenced by the idea of Hayek's dispersed knowledge and the members of the Public Choice school such as Buchanan and Tullock, her work enriches the liberal intellectual tradition with a new vision on the commons and polycentric governance beyond public and private. In the words of the Nobel Prize, “if governmental officials presume that only they have the authority to set the rules, then it will be very difficult for local appropriators to sustain rule-governed institutions over the long run.” Ostrom's pioneering ideas on economic analysis, the importance of freedom of association and the role of institutions and civic participation set a benchmark and guide the activity of this think tank.