Elinor Ostrom

Elinor Ostrom is a personal hero. She passed away in 2012 at the age of 78, but not before making significant contributions to the Social Sciences. Her work on institutional theory is conceptually rich, analytically precise, empirically grounded and oriented toward solving real world problems. Although formally trained in Political Science, Ostrom's work crosses and integrates several Social Science disciplines. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2009.

Embedded here is an adapted version of Ostrom's Nobel Lecture that she gave at her home institution, Indiana University. She shares her personal and professional journey and important insights from her work in the New Institutional Economics.