Markets facilitate value exchange. Markets are everywhere and they affect all of us. If farmers are only able to sell their produce in certain markets like mandis, then their income depends solely on what type of buyers visit mandis. When prospective students can secure a spot in universities only if they can pay high tuition fees, only students from wealthy families would be able to afford higher education. Imagine if marriages can only happen within a religious or caste community, then sustenance of small religious communities is threatened. If kidney disease patients are unable to access deceased donors, the cadaveric organs go under-utilized while living patients continue to suffer. In general, market design affects everything from what and where we eat, where we study and work, to who gets to live a healthy life or even live at all. The design of markets affects buyers’ access to products/service and sellers’ access to markets/segments of interest. In modern-day online markets too, it affects consumers purchase decisions, reviews/ratings, which in turn affects the profitability of marketplaces. The internet marketplaces therefore spend substantial amount of money and resources on market design. This course aims to introduce students to the workings of a market, and the principles that guide its functioning. Some topics include: (i) price discovery, (ii) information asymmetry and role of signals, (iii) matching markets, (iv) online markets, (vi) bargaining, and (vii) reputation issues. In addition to universally applicable principles of market design, the course will bring in perspectives from the Indian context, to enable an understanding of socio-cultural factors that impact market design.
