Institutional Economics for Designing in Socio-technical Systems

This course provides fundamental concepts from the field of Institutional Economics that are instrumental for the design of institutions in socio-technical systems. Relevant frameworks and theories will be elaborated in relation to the design of socio-technical systems. The fundamentals of institutional economics will be applied to concrete design challenges, like the transition to sustainable infrastructures. It will be demonstrated how to relate Institutional Economics to interdisciplinary research challenges, including engineering, political science, law and philosophy. This provides interesting perspectives to other courses in the curriculum. Typical questions that are addressed in this module include:

• What is the specific contribution of Institutional Economics to the design of socio-technical systems?

• How to frame and interpret design challenges from an Institutional Economic perspective?

• What is is an institutional design?

• How can institutional designs be related to the technical design of complex systems?

• How to operationalize concepts from institutional economics and apply them to empirical design challenges?