The Institutional Aspects of Water Management Practices in Classical Athens

This paper analyzes the water management practices that were implemented by the Athenian city-state of the Classical period (508–323 BC) from an economics perspective. These were based on the following diptych: investing water management infrastructure and introducing effective relative institutions. Infrastructure included extensive public works such as the building of public wells, aqueducts, fountains, springs and cisterns, as well as the building of underground water supply and sewage networks. Institutions included the introduction of three categories of public magistrates who implemented the city-state’s water management policy. By implementing Elinor Ostrom’s Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework, this paper examines how rules-in-use and administrative incentives structured the action arena, arguing that the success of the Athenian water management policy should be attributed to an institutional matrix that perfectly aligned administrative incentives with environmental realities. Finally, we discuss how the Athenian water management practices, based on a system of motives and disincentives, could be seen as a useful historical paradigm for our modern societies.