the institutional analysis and development framework (iad) was developed by elinor ostrom, an american political scientist, who was the first woman to receive the nobel memorial prize in economic sciences in 2009. the iad relates a set of concepts to help in the analysis of commons, such as fishery stocks, woodlands. ostrom explored which institutional structures support arrangements that handle those resource stocks in a sustainable way, balancing individuals' use with the interest of a wider public. under the rational choice models, the iad was devised in an attempt to "explain and predict" outcomes by formally exploring and documenting the governance structures, the actors' positions, and the informal and formal rules devised for individuals to extract resources from the commons resource. thus, the iad is a systematic method to document policy analysis functions similar to analytic technique commonly used in physical and social sciences and understand how institutions operate and change over a period of time.