In 1973 she co-founded The Workshop in Political Theory and Public Policy at Indiana University in Bloomington, United States, with her husband, Vincent Ostrom. Considered an expert on collective action, trust, and crowdsourcing, her institutional approach to public policy was considered so prominent as to constitute a "school" in public choice theory (see Mitchell 1988).

In the early 1970s and as part of his work at the Political Theory and Political Analysis Workshop, his team began studying police organization and police services in 80 metropolitan areas. This project lasted 15 years, during which they made tours with police patrol cars, collecting data and interviewing ordinary people. The study concluded that having a large volume of troops does not make the work they do better, and that police services were often provided in the form of cooperation networks, which guaranteed public safety by going beyond their jurisdictions. This meant, in Ostrom's words, that "complexity is not the same as chaos." From this study emerged the concept of "polycentrism", central to his theory. "Polycentrism" is a system of citizenship in which individuals organize with different government authorities at different scales.[5]​.

Ostrom edited numerous books in the fields of organizational studies, political science, and public administration. She was also the founding director of the institutional diversity studies center at Arizona State University.

Elinor Ostrom participated in a study on land use, organized by the United Nations University, UNU-WIDER,[6] Her contribution resulted in the chapter: 'The Puzzle of Counterproductive Property Rights Reforms: A Conceptual Analysis' in Access to Land Rural Poverty and Public Action (2001).[7]​.

In 2004 Ostrom was one of the key organizers at the joint conference organized by UNU-WIDER and a Swedish government think tank (the Expert Group on Development Issues (EGDI)) on Unlocking Human Potential: Linking the Informal and Formal Sectors. The resulting publication: Linking the Formal and Informal Economy: Concepts and Measures (2006),[8]​ was co-edited by Basudeb Guha Khasnobis, Ravi Kanbur and herself.

At the time of her death, in 2012, she was working as Senior Researcher and Director of the Vincent and Elinor Ostrom Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, in Spanish "Taller para el analysima de politiques publices et theory politique".[9]​.

Se considera que Ostrom fue una de las estudiosas más destacadas en el área de recursos compartidos o bienes comunes (commons, en inglés), en particular, cómo los seres humanos interactúan a fin de mantener a largo plazo los niveles de producción de recursos comunes, tales como bosques y recursos hidrológicos, pesca y sistemas de irrigación, zonas de pastizales, etc.[2]​.

Tradicionalmente los economistas han considerado que mantener tales recursos requiere, ya sea de la intervención del estado, o del interés privado individual[10]​ (ver Tragedia de los comunes). Ostrom estudió la manera en la que diversas sociedades han desarrollado formas institucionales al respecto, y casos concretos en los cuales las comunidades han instituido prácticas comunales que han permitido la preservación de recursos comunes y evitado la degradación del entorno:.

The government of the commons

In his seminal work The Government of the Commons "The Government of the Commons (Work)") (1990), he studied multiple cases that show how to collectively manage and dispose of scarce resources. As a summary of his research, Ostrom names eight "design principles" of stable common resource management:[11]​.

Compared to neoclassical economists who seek, through static examples, to demonstrate the impossibility of self-management of resources, throughout the work The Government of the Commons and, especially, with practical examples, the economist Ostrom demonstrates the effectiveness of the collective self-organization of the common goods.[12]​.

Ostrom's latest works emphasize the varied nature of the interaction between humans and ecological systems and seeks to create a general formal system that allows identifying and studying the elements or variables that influence the possibility of self-management of communities in relation to the development of sustainable socio-ecological relationships.[13]​.

UNU-WIDER highlights that the Royal Swedish Academy awarded him the Nobel Prize for “his analysis of economic governance, especially the limits of the company.”[14]​.

Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in memory of Alfred Nobel

In 2009, Ostrom became the first woman to receive the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in memory of Alfred Nobel. The Central Bank of Sweden selected Ostrom for "her analysis of economic governance, especially of shared resources," stating that her work demonstrated how commons can be effectively managed by a group of users." Swedish companies (approx. 1.44 million dollars or 1 million euros, at the exchange rate at that time) for their independent works "on economic governance and on the limits of companies".[17]​.

In 1973 she co-founded The Workshop in Political Theory and Public Policy at Indiana University in Bloomington, United States, with her husband, Vincent Ostrom. Considered an expert on collective action, trust, and crowdsourcing, her institutional approach to public policy was considered so prominent as to constitute a "school" in public choice theory (see Mitchell 1988).

In the early 1970s and as part of his work at the Political Theory and Political Analysis Workshop, his team began studying police organization and police services in 80 metropolitan areas. This project lasted 15 years, during which they made tours with police patrol cars, collecting data and interviewing ordinary people. The study concluded that having a large volume of troops does not make the work they do better, and that police services were often provided in the form of cooperation networks, which guaranteed public safety by going beyond their jurisdictions. This meant, in Ostrom's words, that "complexity is not the same as chaos." From this study emerged the concept of "polycentrism", central to his theory. "Polycentrism" is a system of citizenship in which individuals organize with different government authorities at different scales.[5]​.

Ostrom edited numerous books in the fields of organizational studies, political science, and public administration. She was also the founding director of the institutional diversity studies center at Arizona State University.

Elinor Ostrom participated in a study on land use, organized by the United Nations University, UNU-WIDER,[6] Her contribution resulted in the chapter: 'The Puzzle of Counterproductive Property Rights Reforms: A Conceptual Analysis' in Access to Land Rural Poverty and Public Action (2001).[7]​.

In 2004 Ostrom was one of the key organizers at the joint conference organized by UNU-WIDER and a Swedish government think tank (the Expert Group on Development Issues (EGDI)) on Unlocking Human Potential: Linking the Informal and Formal Sectors. The resulting publication: Linking the Formal and Informal Economy: Concepts and Measures (2006),[8]​ was co-edited by Basudeb Guha Khasnobis, Ravi Kanbur and herself.

At the time of her death, in 2012, she was working as Senior Researcher and Director of the Vincent and Elinor Ostrom Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, in Spanish "Taller para el analysima de politiques publices et theory politique".[9]​.

Se considera que Ostrom fue una de las estudiosas más destacadas en el área de recursos compartidos o bienes comunes (commons, en inglés), en particular, cómo los seres humanos interactúan a fin de mantener a largo plazo los niveles de producción de recursos comunes, tales como bosques y recursos hidrológicos, pesca y sistemas de irrigación, zonas de pastizales, etc.[2]​.

Tradicionalmente los economistas han considerado que mantener tales recursos requiere, ya sea de la intervención del estado, o del interés privado individual[10]​ (ver Tragedia de los comunes). Ostrom estudió la manera en la que diversas sociedades han desarrollado formas institucionales al respecto, y casos concretos en los cuales las comunidades han instituido prácticas comunales que han permitido la preservación de recursos comunes y evitado la degradación del entorno:.

The government of the commons

In his seminal work The Government of the Commons "The Government of the Commons (Work)") (1990), he studied multiple cases that show how to collectively manage and dispose of scarce resources. As a summary of his research, Ostrom names eight "design principles" of stable common resource management:[11]​.

Compared to neoclassical economists who seek, through static examples, to demonstrate the impossibility of self-management of resources, throughout the work The Government of the Commons and, especially, with practical examples, the economist Ostrom demonstrates the effectiveness of the collective self-organization of the common goods.[12]​.

Ostrom's latest works emphasize the varied nature of the interaction between humans and ecological systems and seeks to create a general formal system that allows identifying and studying the elements or variables that influence the possibility of self-management of communities in relation to the development of sustainable socio-ecological relationships.[13]​.

UNU-WIDER highlights that the Royal Swedish Academy awarded him the Nobel Prize for “his analysis of economic governance, especially the limits of the company.”[14]​.

Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in memory of Alfred Nobel

In 2009, Ostrom became the first woman to receive the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in memory of Alfred Nobel. The Central Bank of Sweden selected Ostrom for "her analysis of economic governance, especially of shared resources," stating that her work demonstrated how commons can be effectively managed by a group of users." Swedish companies (approx. 1.44 million dollars or 1 million euros, at the exchange rate at that time) for their independent works "on economic governance and on the limits of companies".[17]​.