The Elinor Ostrom Prize has been established in honour of the Nobel laureate Elinor Ostrom (1933-2012), who was an enormously creative scholar and an outstanding pioneer of the interdisciplinary field of institutional research.*
Her most famous work focused on the problem of managing and maintaining common-pool resources, but she also applied her ideas to problems of political governance and climate change. Her theoretical work on rules is of paramount importance. In her last decade she became increasingly interested in how rule-systems (or institutions) evolve. Her articles published in JOIE are among the journal’s most-cited papers.
A prize of £1500, funded by Millennium Economics Ltd. (the owner of JOIE), is awarded each year for the best full-length article published in JOIE in the preceding calendar year. Each annual prize competition is judged by an international committee of experts in the field of institutional research.
Note: The Elinor Ostrom Prize will consist of an increased award of £1600 from 2026 onwards.
* Approval to use the Ostrom name has been obtained from the Indiana University Foundation.
2025 Elinor Ostrom Prize
Erwin Dekker and Blaz Remic (2024) “Hayek’s Extended Mind: On the (im)possibility of Austrian behavioral economics” JOIE Vol.20, e19
AND
Paul Lewis and Paul Dragos Aligica (2024) “The Ostroms on self-governance: the importance of cybernetics” JOIE Vol. 20, e23
The award was made at WINIR 2025 in Prague, Czech Republic.
2025 Ostrom Prize Committee: Luca Andriani, Maria Brouwer, David Dequech, Elodie Douarin, Brett Frischmann, Robbert Maseland, Jon Murphy, Sheilagh Ogilvie, Edella Schlager.
2024 Elinor Ostrom Prize
Jon Murphy (2023), “Cascading Expert Failure“, JOIE 19(1): 52-69.
The award was made at WINIR 2024 in Pittsburgh, USA.
2024 Ostrom Prize Committee: Maria Brouwer, Daniel Cole, Christopher Coyne, David Dequech, Abigail Devereaux, Brett Frischmann, Roger Koppl, Robbert Maseland, Sheilagh Ogilvie, Edella Schlager.
2023 Elinor Ostrom Prize
Adam Crepelle, Tate Fegley, Ilia Murtazashvili & Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili, “Community Policing on American Indian Reservations: A Preliminary Investigation”, JOIE 18(5): 843-860.
The award was made at WINIR 2023 in Catania, Italy.
2023 Ostrom Prize Committee: Maria Brouwer, Daniel Cole, Christopher Coyne, David Dequech, Abigail Devereaux, Brett Frischmann, Roger Koppl, Sheilagh Ogilvie, Jochen Runde, Edella Schlager, Mary Shirley.
2022 Elinor Ostrom Prize
Peter Grajzl & Peter Murrell (2021), “A Machine-Learning History of English Caselaw and Legal Ideas Prior to the Industrial Revolution I: Generating and Interpreting the Estimates“, JOIE 17(1): 1-19 and “A Machine-Learning History of English Caselaw and Legal Ideas Prior to the Industrial Revolution II: Applications“, JOIE 17(2): 201-216.
The award was announced at WINIR 2022 (online).
2022 Ostrom Prize Committee: Richard Adelstein, Maria Brouwer, Daniel Cole, Christopher Coyne, Tine de Moor, David Dequech, Abigail Devereaux, Brett Frischmann, Roger Koppl, Michael McGinnis, Jochen Runde, Edella Schlager, Mary Shirley, Irene van Staveren.
2021 Elinor Ostrom Prize
Abigail Devereaux & Linan Peng (2020), “Give Us a Little Social Credit: To Design or To Discover Personal Ratings in the Era of Big Data“, JOIE 16(3): 369-387.
David Ciepley (2020), “The Anglo-American Misconception of Stockholders as ‘Owners’ and ‘Members’: Its Origins and Consequences”, JOIE 16(5): 623-642.
The award was announced on 7 August 2021, on Elinor Ostrom’s birthday.
2021 Ostrom Prize Committee: Richard Adelstein, Elodie Bertrand, Daniel Cole, Christopher Coyne, David Dequech, Brett Frischmann, Sophia du Plessis, Thráinn Eggertsson, Roger Koppl, Michael McGinnis, Sheilagh Ogilvie, Edella Schlager, Mary Shirley, Irene van Staveren.
2020 Elinor Ostrom Prize
Elise S. Brezis & Joël Cariolle (2019), “The Revolving Door, State Connections and Inequality of Influence in the Financial Sector“, JOIE 15(4): 595-614.
The award was announced on 7 August 2020, on Elinor Ostrom’s birthday.
2020 Ostrom Prize Committee: Elodie Bertrand, Federica Carugati, Christopher Coyne, David Dequech, Thráinn Eggertsson.
2019 Elinor Ostrom Prize
Robbert Maseland (2018), “Is Colonialism History? The Declining Impact of Colonial Legacies on African Institutional and Economic Development”, JOIE 14(2): 258-287.
Colin Harris (2018), “Institutional Solutions to Free-Riding in Peer-to-Peer Networks: A Case Study of Online Pirate Communities”, JOIE 14(5): 901-924.
The award was made at WINIR 2019 in Lund, Sweden.
2019 Ostrom Prize Committee: Elodie Bertrand, Federica Carugati, Christopher Coyne, David Dequech, Thráinn Eggertsson.
2018 Elinor Ostrom Prize
Avner Greif & Joel Mokyr (2017), “Cognitive Rules, Institutions and Economic Growth: Douglass North and Beyond”, JOIE 13(1): 25-52.
The award was made at WINIR 2018 in Hong Kong, China.
2018 Ostrom Prize Committee: Christopher Coyne, David Dequech, Thráinn Eggertsson, Will Milberg.
Read the statement by Professors Avner Greif and Joel Mokyr here.
2017 Elinor Ostrom Prize
Agnès Labrousse (2016), “Not By Technique Alone: A Methodological Comparison of Development Analysis with Esther Duflo and Elinor Ostrom”, JOIE 12(2): 277-303.
The award was made at WINIR 2017 in Utrecht, Netherlands.
2017 Ostrom Prize Committee: Christopher Coyne, David Dequech, Thráinn Eggertsson, Will Milberg, Malcolm Rutherford.
2016 Elinor Ostrom Prize
Roger Koppl, Stuart Kauffman, Teppo Felin & Giuseppe Longo (2015), “Economics for a Creative World“, JOIE 11(1): 1-31.
The award was made at WINIR 2016 in Boston, USA.
2016 Ostrom Prize Committee: Bruno Amable, Christopher Coyne, David Dequech, Thráinn Eggertsson, William Milberg, Malcolm Rutherford.
2015 Elinor Ostrom Prize
Daniel H. Cole, Graham Epstein & Michael D. McGinnis (2014), “Digging Deeper into Hardin’s Pasture: The Complex Institutional Structure of the ‘Tragedy of the Commons’“, JOIE 10(3): 353-369.
The award was made at WINIR 2015 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
2015 Ostrom Prize Committee: Bruno Amable, Christopher Coyne, David Dequech, Thráinn Eggertsson, William Milberg, Ugo Pagano, Malcolm Rutherford.
Inaugural Elinor Ostrom Prize
Fabio Landini (2013), “Institutional Change and Information Production“, JOIE 9(3): 257-284.
The award was made at the conference dinner of the Inaugural WINIR Conference in London, UK.
2014 Ostrom Prize Committee: Masahiko Aoki, Timur Kuran, Ugo Pagano, Mary Shirley, Ulrich Witt.