Cole and McGinnis: Elinor Ostrom, 4-vol. set

Elinor Ostrom (1933–2012) is the first and—to date—only woman to win the Nobel Prize for economics.

She received the award, shared with Oliver E. Williamson, in 2009 for her analyses of how individuals and communities can often manage common resources—ranging from irrigation and fisheries to information systems—as well as, or better than, markets, companies, or the state.

Her hugely influential book, Governing the Commons (1990), examined numerous local-management regimes for common resources and established a set of principles for predicting success and failure.

It was this work, challenging the conventional wisdom of resource management, which the Nobel committee cited as her primary contribution to economics.

But it was far from her only major contribution to the discipline. Now, to help advanced students and researchers make sense of a legacy that includes nearly three dozen books and more than 300 journal articles, Routledge announces a new title in its Critical Assessments of Contemporary Economists series.

Edited by Daniel H. Cole and Michael D. McGinnis, both of Indiana University, where Ostrom founded an influential research and teaching centre, the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Elinor Ostrom brings together in four volumes the foundational and the very best cutting-edge assessments of her work, and related concepts and themes. With a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the editors, which places the collected material in its historical and intellectual context, Elinor Ostrom is an essential collection and is certain to be recognized as a vital one-stop resource.