Elinor Ostrom and Neuroeconomics

As far as I know Elinor Ostrom has never run a neuroeconomics experiment but her research is likely to be of interest to neuroeconomists.  Her research on how groups govern the commons is multidisciplinary including extensive field research, economics experiments (with James Walker), and game theory (with Roy Gardner).  In outlining the design principles (slide 22) of successful institutions for governing commons, Professor Ostrom includes the ability of members to monitor other users and resources.  This is interesting because Ostrom shows this is important for harvesting social rewards, but monitoring the environment is also important for the harvesting of private rewards (See Read Montague and Brooks King-Casas in TICS, 2007, here.).  There is now doubt that social monitoring is important to know who to punish (and reward), and that people are keenly aware of the potential for being monitored, but this neural network is likely to be far more interesting in that it allows us handle small social defections before they become big ones, and it is this feature that allows a group to maintain their common agreement and behavior.