Digital platforms and markets play an increasingly vital role in modern economies and societies. Understanding how to engineer these systems for efficiency, fairness, and societal benefit is crucial for shaping the digital future. By combining economic theory, engineering principles, and hands-on applications, this course prepares you to address real-world challenges in eCommerce, digital media, and digital democracy.

This lecture provides an in-depth exploration of the theoretical foundations, practical applications, and engineering principles essential for understanding and designing modern markets and digital platforms.

We aim to:

• Equip students with the ability to analyze, design, and evaluate digital markets and platforms.
• Provide an understanding of market mechanisms, economic principles, and the role of digital infrastructure in shaping economic and social interactions.
• Explore the influence of digital platforms on media, democracy, and citizen participation

Course Structure:

1. Foundations of Platform & Market Engineering
   
   1. Market Engineering and Institutional Economics
   2. The "House of Market Engineering"
   3. Key concepts: efficiency, fairness, incentive compatibility, market convergence
2. Applications and Principles of Markets
   1. Market Engineering and Institutional Economics
   2. Economic theories in digital markets and platforms
3. Market Engineering Microstructure and Infrastructure
   
   1. Game Theory
   2. Mechanism Design
   3. Trust and Enforcement
   4. Auctions (single-item, combinatorial)
   5. IT & Business Infrastructure
   6. Evaluating Market Engineering: Experimental Economics
4. Digital Platforms and the Media
5. Digital Democracy:
   
   1. Online Polarization and Disinformation
   2. Digital Participation Engineering
   3. Digital Citizen Science Engineering

• Roth, A., The Economist as Engineer: Game Theory, Experimental Economics and Computation as Tools for Design Economics. Econometrica 70(4): 1341-1378, 2002.
• Weinhardt, C. ,Holtmann, C., Neumann, D., Market Engineering. Wirtschaftsinformatik, 2003.
• Wolfstetter, E., Topics in Microeconomics - Industrial Organization, Auctions, and Incentives. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1999.
• Smith, V. "Theory, Experiments and Economics", The Journal of Economic Perspectives,Vol. 3, No. 1, 151-69 1989

ehemals: "Market Engineering: Information in Institutions"