IMPLEMENTING OSTROM'S NOBEL WINNING STUDY TO INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION IN SPACE ACTIVITIES

摘要

The 2009 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences Laureate, Elinor Ostrom, refuted Hardin's classic "tragedy of the commons" and found strong empirical proof, in lab and in the field, across countries and sectors, favoring polycentric governance of complex economic systems. Ostrom's research of diverse institutional arrangements for governing common-pool resources (CPRs) and public goods showed that decentralized local institutions perform better than their counterparts. The research also suggested that the core goal of public policy should be to facilitate the development of such institutions, rather than impose rules. As the Nobel committee noted, "[Ostrom's] observations are important not only to the study of natural resource management, but also to the study of human cooperation more generally." Ostrom's research is in the micro level of persons, and it can be applied to the micro level of states.