{"id":37,"date":"2025-05-01T16:55:35","date_gmt":"2025-05-01T20:55:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/?p=37"},"modified":"2025-05-01T16:55:35","modified_gmt":"2025-05-01T20:55:35","slug":"elinor-ostrom-in-the-cul-de-sac-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/2025\/05\/01\/elinor-ostrom-in-the-cul-de-sac-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\/","title":{"rendered":"Elinor Ostrom in the Cul-de-Sac \u2013 by Dr. Cecil Bohanon and Dr. John Horowitz"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">Elinor Ostrom, who taught at Indiana University, was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Economics. Her work focused on <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/fee.org\/articles\/elinor-ostroms-nobel-prize-in-economics\/\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">various mechanisms of self-governance<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"none\"> of common resources. Ostrom documented how local communities in the developed and less developed world managed common resources like water, forests, and fisheries. As an economist, Ostrom focused on the incentives the governing structures gave users of the commons. In a successfully managed commons, there must be both positive incentives for good behavior and negative incentives for bad behavior. Ostrom also noted that in successfully managed commons, users have a say on rules and decision-making and have access to relatively low-cost conflict resolution mechanisms.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233279&quot;:true,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559731&quot;:720,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:480}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Elinor passed away in 2012, but her work lives on and provides interesting insights into <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/econpapers.repec.org\/article\/cupjinsec\/v_3a17_3ay_3a2021_3ai_3a4_3ap_3a625-640_5f6.htm\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">Common Interest Housing Developments (<\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"none\">CID<\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"none\">s<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">), which have recently become America\u2019s predominant form of new housing construction. Developers like the higher density, which increases profits, and homeowners like the increased amenities, like community clubhouses and playgrounds, and control over the neighborhood. Local governments like not having to pay or manage common good amenities while also receiving property taxes. In most jurisdictions, homeowners in <\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">CID<\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">s pay property taxes to their local governments and homeowner association dues. <\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">HOA<\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">s can regulate many details of a neighborhood and individual behavior that public governments either are less likely to or don\u2019t regulate, such as houses\u2019 color or limiting homeowners to those 55 years of age and over.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233279&quot;:true,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559731&quot;:720,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:480}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Homeowners are expected to be willing and able to participate in association governance and pay their assessments, which include reserve funds for future repairs. Unfortunately, in many associations, most owners pay little attention to association activities and know little about Association finances. They do not vote in association elections, and property managers and lawyers make major decisions. There is little oversite of the financial health of <\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">CID<\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">s or public dissemination of the financial health to owners or potential buyers. Unlike a city, bankruptcy is difficult for a <\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">HOA<\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> since filing for bankruptcy puts the association\u2019s primary asset, the power to assess, in the hands of a bankruptcy judge. If people fail to pay their assessments, they can lose their houses in foreclosure. Of course, more regulation may be burdensome to volunteer directors. Few <\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">HOA<\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">s have low-cost conflict resolution mechanisms, so many conflicts go to high-cost judicial review.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233279&quot;:true,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559731&quot;:720,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:480}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Common Interest Developments are much more controversial than Ostrom\u2019s successfully managed self-governing commons. It will be interesting to see how they evolve.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233279&quot;:true,&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559731&quot;:720,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:480}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Elinor Ostrom, who taught at Indiana University, was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Economics. Her work focused on various mechanisms of self-governance of common resources. Ostrom documented how local communities in the developed and less developed world managed common resources like water, forests, and fisheries. As an economist, Ostrom focused on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[366,374,377,364,361,358,360,359,84,371,147,353,375,369,363,370,272,354,378,356,357,368,3,365,376,362,367,127,373,372,355],"class_list":["post-37","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government","tag-amenities","tag-association-election","tag-bankruptcy","tag-clubhouse","tag-common-interest-housing-developments","tag-commons","tag-conflict-resolution","tag-decision-making","tag-developed-world","tag-dues","tag-economics","tag-elinor-ostrom","tag-financial-health","tag-hoa","tag-homeowner","tag-homeowner-association","tag-incentives","tag-indiana-university","tag-judicial-review","tag-less-developed-world","tag-local-communities","tag-local-government","tag-nobel-prize","tag-playground","tag-potential-buyer","tag-profit","tag-property-tax","tag-regulation","tag-repairs","tag-reserve-funds","tag-self-governance"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Elinor Ostrom in the Cul-de-Sac \u2013 by Dr. Cecil Bohanon and Dr. John Horowitz - Econ Briefs<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/2025\/05\/01\/elinor-ostrom-in-the-cul-de-sac-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Elinor Ostrom in the Cul-de-Sac \u2013 by Dr. Cecil Bohanon and Dr. John Horowitz - Econ Briefs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Elinor Ostrom, who taught at Indiana University, was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Economics. 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