Nobel laureate Elinor Ostrom changed the way economists think about common-pool resources with her 1990 book, Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action. Building on the foundation that Ostrom laid, scholars and policymakers today consider what might be needed to find sustainable, cooperative solutions to the “tragedy of the commons” and suggest how communities of individuals might develop the capacity to create those conditions for themselves.

Roberta Q. Herzberg is Distinguished Senior Fellow of the F. A. Hayek Program in Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics in the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.
Economic PolicyEconomistsEconomyPhilosophy and ReligionSocialism, Communism, and Collectivism
Other Independent Review articles by Roberta Q. Herzberg
Winter 2022/23 Edmund Burke and the Perennial Battle, 1789 – 1797