I am reading “Understanding Institutional Diversity” by Elinor Ostrom. It is indeed about institutions. This subject had never crossed my mind. I am aware of theories of the firm where lowering transaction costs within a firm can convey economic advantages to the firm and thus collectively to the members. The broader arena of institutions considered have a much broader raison d’être according to Ostrom.

I am accustomed using page numbers in making notes. This is my first Kindle book but I am using the free Mac app from Amazon in lieu of a ‘real Kindle’.

L 702: I am afraid I have not learned much yet. This may indeed be meta material that is critical to doing such research but it seems out of place in an introduction to a book. Just as you do not start an algebra book with a treatise on formal logic, you should leave such material as this to an appendix with an early reference to those who need to know where to find it. I think that the subject matter is similar to that used in science but with rather different words. I can not tell from this whether the notions are congruent.

For instance the section on the several concepts of “rule” seems to me to be caused merely the English language conflating several distinct concepts under one word. I would presume that one merely needs to indicate which concept ‘rule’ will denote here.

Around about 700 she introduces some economic terms that are different from those used by economists. Economists use ‘fungible’ and ‘rivalrous’. Her chart at about 727 is rather like the chart in the Wikipedia article.

Ostrom makes much use of “Arena”. She introduces the term at about 505. She speaks in generalities. I would like to hear of a handful of actual arenas that are typical.


510 Terminology “Outcomes feed back onto the participants and the situation and may transform both over time.” I think this speaks of “transforming a situation” as if a situation bore state. ----- “one treats exogenous variables as fixed”; I presume that such variables may vary in time but are assumed not to depend on the actors within the model. 526 cim.meebo.com ping 192.168.0.254 Clara 777