This paper presents an institutional analysis of the underlying factors affecting the performance of drinking-water community organizations in rural areas of Costa Rica. These organizations provide water to more than 60 percent of the total rural population. There is, however, a great disparity...

Yahua Bert Wang recounts his academic experiences with Elinor Ostrom, 2009 winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics. He discusses the contribution of Elinor Ostrom to develop a common language of social science, beyond the contribution to economic governance, especially the commons, announced by...

"What makes social-ecological systems robust? In this paper we look at the institutional configurations that affect the interactions among resources, resource users, public infrastructure providers, and public infrastructures. We propose a framework that helps to identify potential...

"Nonprofit theory predicts nonprofit enterprises will be more trustworthy than for-profit enterprises in the delivery of goods for which quality is difficult to determine because nonprofit enterprises are legally required to reinvest all profits back into the enterprise. Theoretically, consumers...

"Much of nonprofit research over the past twenty years focuses on how a nonprofit enterprise is different than a for-profit or public enterprise. Influential early theorists relied on the legal constraint nonprofits have in redistributing profit to explain nonprofit production of certain types...