Challenging Institutional Analysis and Development: The Bloomington School

The Mercatus Center at George Mason University hosted a special installment of the Mercatus Lecture Series, "Challenging Institutional Analysis and Development: The Bloomington School," A Panel Discussion & Reception with Elinor Ostrom, Nobel Laureate, 2009 and Co-director of the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis; Paul Dragos Aligica, Senior Research Fellow, Mercatus Center; and Peter Boettke, Vice President for Research, Mercatus Center.

The panel discussed the unique research agenda of the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis as well as Boettke and Aligica's book, Challenging Institutional Analysis and Development: The Bloomington School. 

The Bloomington School has become one of the most dynamic, well recognized and productive centers of the New Institutional Theory Movement. Its ascendancy is considered to be the result of a unique and extremely successful combination of interdisciplinary theoretical approaches and hard-nosed empiricism. The book presents an outline and a systematic analysis of the vision behind the Bloomington Research Program, explaining its basic assumptions, its main themes, and the foundational philosophy that frames its research questions and methodological approaches.