Needs, Wants & Desires: Evaluating Life In a World of Institutions

Catalog description

We live in a world of institutions, such as markets, states, families, workplaces, or prisons, within which we negotiate our material, physical, mental, and moral well-being. Moreover, design of institutions that shape our present and future possibilities are a result of the actions and in-actions of eight billion people on this planet. This course introduces the students to ways in which we can learn and comprehend decision-making as we negotiate our needs, wants, and desires within the structures of institutions that we create and transform. Drawing from concepts, case studies, and group activities in economics, game theory, political economy, and philosophy, this course is an interdisciplinary introduction to the systematic ways of thinking and analyzing the relation between decisions we make (individually or collectively) in the context of our globally interdependent lives, and the institutions we give life to. Part I introduces ideas and propositions concerning the relation between trust and institutional design that will be evaluated through group experiments. Part II focuses on learning about and participating in patterns of decision-making in the context of markets and states. Part III engages critically with ideas concerning the limits of institutions as they relate to questions of morality, social justice, and cultural values. Part IV explores special topics on institutions and behavior ranging from corruption, sports, underground economies, crime, and ecology through research and interviewing.