ECONtribute – Reinhard Selten Institute

ECONtribute: Markets & Public Policy, a joint initiative of the Universities of Bonn and Cologne, is funded as a Cluster of Excellence in the German Excellence Strategy. The goal of the Cluster is to advance a new paradigm for the analysis of markets & public policy in light of fundamental societal and technological challenges. The Cluster consists of more than 40 researchers, organized in nine Research Areas. The ECONtribute Network promotes two-way knowledge exchange between researchers and policymakers. All research activities are organized under the roof of the Reinhard Selten Institute (RSI).

Why Markets & Public Policy?

Markets are central to the functioning of modern societies, but they may also fail and generate undesirable outcomes. Market forces may contribute to inequality of income and wealth. Prices that do not properly reflect the damage inflicted upon the environment by economic activities undermine efforts to prevent climate change. And the failure of financial markets has led to the global financial crisis, causing a deep recession and taxpayer-funded bank rescues. This calls for the correction of market outcomes through public policy.

The traditional perspective emphasizes market power, externalities and information asymmetries as sources of market failures and tackles them by regulation, taxation or public goods provision. The Cluster extends the traditional approach by broadening the view towards new challenges that have appeared due to structural changes in the economy, by taking account of new objectives beyond the traditional notions of economic efficiency and welfare and by employing and advancing new tools.

New Challenges

The Cluster broadens the view towards new problems that have appeared due to structural changes in the economy, such as consumer protection in digital markets or financial regulation with a systemic perspective.

New Objectives

The Cluster takes account of new objectives, such as procedural fairness, social responsibility and morale, which go beyond traditional notions of economic efficiency and welfare.

New Tools

The Cluster employs and advances new tools, developed, for example, in experimental economics, market and mechanism design or computer science.

Scientific Approach

A comprehensive analysis of markets & public policy necessitates a number of different tasks. Please click on the hotspots for more information.

Why Markets & Public Policy?

New Challenges

New Objectives

New Tools

Scientific Approach

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