Ostrom (2009)

Ostrom, Elinor.  “Beyond Markets and States: Polycentric Governance of Complex Economic Systems.”  Nobel Prize lecture, December 8, 2009.

Excerpt from the lecture:  "Building trust in one another and developing institutional rules that are well matched to the ecological systems being used are of central importance for solving social dilemmas. The surprising but repeated finding that users of resources that are in relatively good condition – or even improving – do invest in various ways of monitoring one another relates to the core problem of building trust…

"The most important lesson...is that humans have a more complex motivational structure and more capability to solve social dilemmas than posited in earlier rational-choice theory. Designing institutions to force (or nudge) entirely self-interested individuals to achieve better outcomes has been the major goal posited by policy analysts for governments to accomplish for much of the past half century. extensive empirical research leads me to argue that instead, a core goal of public policy should be to facilitate the development of institutions that bring out the best in humans."

Link:  https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economic-sciences/laureates/2009/ostrom-lecture.html