Thoughts on the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) Framework

For the last two times I have taught PA 763--the PhD-level public policy course--I have not taught the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework. This framework, most closely associated with Elinor Ostrom, has gained considerable attention (and a Nobel Prize) for its ability to help explain why communities managing "common pool resources" are able to do so without resorting to what some would call "heavy handed" or "command-and-control" policy tools to avoid the overexploitation of CFPs. Such overexploitation can lead to what Hardin called "The Tragedy of the Commons," in which some individuals may find themselves better off (say, by overgrazing a pasture or overfishing a fishery), but where, in the long run, individuals and their communities are worse off.

This page is a list of resources that I have found to help me better explain IAD. I am not an expert in this framework, and have not applied it to my research, in large part because I don't understand it well enough to use it in the things I study. But it's become an important part of the policy process literature, and deserves more of my attention. At some future time, I will update this page as I learn more about IAD.

Meanwhile, one's first impulse, in the early 21st century, when confronted with an idea is to either Google it, or read about it in Wikipedia. There's no shame in reading Wikipedia (although rather more shame in citing it!), but its entry on IAD is quite weak.

What follows here, for now, are simply links to resources that I think will be valuable. Since I am writing this page on campus at NC State, some of these links may only work for those logged into the NC State network, as they link to journal articles that may be open only to users showing the proper IP address.

http://www.eolss.net/sample-chapters/c04/E6-99A-34.pdf

Here's a short summary from the U of Colorado, Denver: http://www.ucdenver.edu/academics/colleges/SPA/researchandoutreach/Buechner%20Institute%20for%20Governance/Centers/WOPPR/IAD/Pages/default.aspx

Ostrom, Elinor. 2011. "Background on the Institutional Analysis and Development Framework." Policy Studies Journal, 39(1).

Collective Action Issue: Supplementary Information: http://geo.coop/node/681

Ostrom, "The Institutional Analysis and Development Framework and the Commons." Cornell Law Review 95 (4): http://cornelllawreview.org/articles/the-institutional-analysis-and-development-framework-and-the-commons/

Imperial, Mark. 2005. "Taking Institutions Seriously: Using the IAD Framework to Analyze Fisheries Policy," Society and Natural Resources 18:493-509. http://www.envs.emory.edu/faculty/YANDLE/S%26NR-July2005.pdf