7-8^th December 2006,
Manchester, UK

For around a century, theoretical microeconomists have typically been interested in the existence and efficiency of the competitive equilibrium of a highly stylized "market" economy, wherein no form of institutional organization or specification of inter-agent relationships is assumed. The consistency of allocations, in the sense that what individuals receive is just what they desire, is achieved by an anonymous price system which all agents take to be given.

Thus, market outcomes are explained with no need for any specification of the relationships within the economy: communication and interaction other than through the price system are ignored altogether. However, while coordination through prices is undoubtedly important, can we afford to ignore the influence of other coordination and interaction mechanisms?

A growing body of empirical literature on the functioning of specific markets highlights the great diversity of institutional arrangements governing exchange, and suggests that these exert a fundamental impact on the nature and outcome of the market process. Yet, surprisingly, relatively little work has been done on the mechanisms through which institutional architectures emerge and how these co-evolve on the development of new technologies, the behaviour of agents and market outcomes.

Themes include:

• Market Formation and Innovation: The dynamic interaction between early stages of development of technologies, the early development of markets and the evolution of market architectures.
• Institutions of Capitalism, the Innovation Process and Growth: The structures and mechanisms through which the institutions of capitalism can promote or restrain innovation and how this connects to dynamics of industrial growth and development.
• Market Architecture and Dynamics: The relationship between institutional arrangements, market organisations and market
  outcomes and the relation between norms of interaction and properties of market outcomes. Under this theme 3, a special session will be dedicated to Wholesale Electricity Markets.

Programme

Venue :

• Conference Suite,
  Harold Hankins Building, 10th floor.
  Booth Street West, Manchester M13 9QH
• Map

Accomodation:

• Manchester Business School Hotel, Booth Street West, Manchester, M15 6PB
• Map

Dinners:

• Wednesday 6th December 2006:
  informal dinner at 7.30pm at the Tai Pan restaurant
  Brunswick House, 81-97 Upper Brook Street, Oxford Road & All Saints, M13 9TX.
  Meeting point for the delegates: the Business School bar at 7.15pm.
• Thursday 7th December:
  workshop dinner at 7.30 at the Lowry Hotel,
  50 Dearmans Place, Chapel Wharf Salford, Manchester M3 5LH.
  Meeting point for the delegates: the bar at Business School bar at 7.00.

Contact:

• Siobhan Drugan