Vincent Ostrom | |
---|---|
Born |
Vincent Alfred Ostrom September 25, 1919 Nooksack, Washington |
Died | June 29, 2012 (aged 92) |
Nationality | United States |
Institution | Indiana University |
Field |
Public economics Political economics |
School or tradition |
Polycentric political economy |
Alma mater | University of California, Los Angeles (B.A., M.A., Ph.D) |
Contributions | 120+ peer-reviewed publications |
Vincent Alfred Ostrom (September 25, 1919 – June 29, 2012) was an American political economist and the Founding Director of the Ostrom Workshop based at Indiana University and the Arthur F. Bentley Professor Emeritus of Political Science. He and his wife, the economist Elinor Ostrom, made numerous contributions to the field of political science, political economy, and public choice.
The Ostroms made particular study of fragmentation theory, rational choice theory, federalism, common-pool resources and polycentrism in government. The Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization published a special issue, "Polycentric Political Economy: A Festschrift for Elinor and Vincent Ostrom", as the proceedings of a 2003 conference held in their honor, at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.
Vincent Ostrom graduated from Mount Baker High School in Deming, Washington (1937), and attended Los Angeles City College (1938–1940). He received a B.A. in political science (1942) and a M.A (1945) from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He received his Ph.D from UCLA in political science in 1950. He was married to political scientist Elinor Ostrom (1933–2012) from 1963 until her death, which occurred shortly before his own.
Ostrom began working at Indiana University in 1964 as a Professor of Political Science and co-founded the university's Ostrom Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis with his wife and colleague, Elinor Ostrom. The Ostrom Workshop is committed to the collaborative engagement of faculty, students, and scholars, with a mission of advancing "the interdisciplinary study of institutions, incentives, and behavior as they relate to policy-relevant applications." The Olstrom Workshop research focuses on polycentrism, common-pool resources, and the roles of self-governance and collective action. Earlier in his career, Ostrom had held faculty positions at the University of Wyoming, the University of Oregon, and UCLA. He was a key consultant to the Alaska Constitutional Convention (1955–56) in the drafting of the Natural Resource Article of the Constitution of Alaska (Article VIII), which mandated that the state's resources were to be a public trust.