Behavioral Market Design

Max Planck Guest Lecture

  • Date: Feb 12, 2025
  • Time: 05:00 PM - 07:00 PM (Local Time Germany)
  • Speaker: Prof. Dr. Axel Ockenfels (University of Cologne and MPI for Research on Collective Goods, Bonn)
  • Axel Ockenfels is a professor of economics at the University of Cologne and, since 2023, a director at the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods in Bonn. In Cologne, he heads the Laboratory for Economic Research; he was also head of the Institute of Energy Economics (until 2007) and the Center of Excellence for Social and Economic Behavior (until 2023). Professor Ockenfels has held long-term guest positions at Harvard and Stanford, amongst others. He is a member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences, the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts, and the German Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech). He is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Board at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, the Economists' Round Table and the Climate Round Table at the Federal Chancellery, as well as the Scientific Advisory Board of the Bundesnetzagentur. His research has been honored with numerous scientific awards, including the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize from the German Research Foundation. His expertise in market design and behavioral research is sought after by governments, market platforms, and companies.
  • Location: Freiburg/Germany, Fürstenbergstr. 19
  • Room: Seminar room (F 113) | Guests are welcome; please register
  • Host: MPI-CSL in cooperation with the Walter Eucken Institute
  • Contact: c.hillemanns@csl.mpg.de
Behavioral Market Design
Addressing pressing economic and social challenges – such as pandemics and other health crises, climate change, and energy scarcity – requires changes in behavior. In this talk, I will use case studies, primarily from my own research, to illustrate how human behavior and bounded rationality influences the design of institutions aimed at aligning incentives and actions with overarching goals. I will argue that economic design research and behavioral science are often complementary, rather than substitutes, in promoting effective behavioral change.

External guests – Please register your participation with Carolin Hillemanns: c.hillemanns@csl.mpg.de.

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