Print Print

Institutional Experimentalism

Copenhagen Lectures:

Jack Knight

Jack Knight from Washington University, St. Louis. is the first guest in the Copenhagen Lecture Series arranged by the International Center for Business and Politics
Institutional Experimentalism
Many scholars in the "new institutionalism" tradition emphasize the benefits of experimentalism in the areas of institutional design and public policy. In this lecture I will discuss the logic of experimentalism in social, political and economic institutions and offer strong support for this approach to institutional design. I will then assess the conditions necessary for effective experiments of the form often advocated and consider some of the explicit and implicit costs of successful experimentation.
Jack Knight has for many years been in the top of the leading scientists within the area of institutional theory called rational choice. In this connection he has worked closely together with Nobel award winner Douglass C. North from the same university. Jack Knight is connected to Center in Political Economy at Washington University and is a visiting professor at International Center for Business and Politics, CBS. His most known books are Institutions and Social Conflict (1992), Explaining Social Institutions (1995) and The Choices Justices Make (1997). His latest book is Courts, Judges and Politics (2005)
He has also published a great number of articles in leading journals and serves on the editorial boards of Rationality and Society and The American Journal of Political Science.
The purpose of Copenhagen Lectures is to the gather the internationally viewed most distinguished scientists from the disciplines political science, sociology, economics and history to present, discuss and evaluate the development within these disciplines. Further more the purpose is to contribute to the development of institutional theory within the sub discipline of comparative political economy and at the same time to introduce the currently most developed scientific questions and answers to a Danish audience – students, scientists and others.

Time: 26.04 9.30 -12.00


Place: Copenhagen Business School, Kilevej 14, 2000 Frederiksberg C


Room: Nokia Auditoriet, K.S.43




Last updated by Bente Faurby 20/04/2007