2 Property Rights and Collective Action for Poverty Reduction: A Framework for Analysis

This chapter presents a conceptual framework for examining how formal and informal institutions of property rights and collective action can contribute to poverty reduction, including through external interventions and action by poor people themselves. The past two decades have witnessed an increased understanding of the role of institutions in natural resource management (Ostrom 1990; Baland and Platteau 1996). The insights on the role of formal and informal property rights and collective action institutions in improving well-being can assist both research and policies for poverty reduction. They shed light on issues of governance, power relations, and ideological factors that keep people in poverty.