Many social and economic problems arise because individual incentives pull against the common good. Drawing on examples from our own and others’ research – market failure, organ shortages, and climate change, among others – this lecture examines why cooperation so often breaks down. It then shows how modern economic instruments can design targeted incentive and decision-making structures that foster cooperative behaviour and, in doing so, open up new paths to solving these problems.
Biography
Axel Ockenfels is Professor of Economics at the University of Cologne and Founding Director of the Adenauer School of Government, as well as a Director at the Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Economics in Bonn.
His research is in economic design and behavioural science, and he collaborates with governments and companies on design and behavioural challenges including vaccine procurement, organ and stem cell donation, energy markets, climate policy, and crisis management. He has served on standing and ad hoc advisory bodies for various German institutions including the Federal Chancellery, several federal ministries, and the Federal Chamber of Physicians (Bundesärztekammer).
Professor Ockenfels is a member of the Leopoldina and several other German academies of science. Among his distinctions is the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize of the German Research Foundation.
