Draft: Cite at Your Own Risk Institutional Sustainability and the Management of Common Resources

1. Introduction Since the mid-1980s, discussions over what kind of institutional arrangements account for sustainable resource use have undergone a remarkable change. The shift has occurred in part as a response to developments in the field of non-cooperative game theory political scientists, and rural sociologists among others have contributed to this burgeoning literature. This body of empirical work, using detailed historical and contemporary studies, has shown that resource users often create institutional arrangements and management regimes that help them allocate benefits equitably, over long time periods, and with only limited efficiency losses (McKean 1992, Ostrom 1992, Agrawal 1999). Much of this research has typically focused on locally situated small user groups and communities.