New MPIfG Book: Failure by Design by Georg Rilinger

August saw the publication with Chicago University Press of Failure by Design: The California Energy Crisis and the Limits of Market Planning by Georg Rilinger. In his book, the former MPIfG postdoc develops a new theoretical framework for studying markets as the product of organizational planning and for understanding the limits of market design. His case study is of the California energy crisis, which began in the year 2000 and ended in economic disaster. In exploring the complex difficulties associated with electricity markets, Rilinger not only sheds new light on the crisis itself in his analysis but also develops a broader understanding of markets as social constructs with inherent weaknesses. Georg Rilinger was a postdoc at the MPIfG between 2020 and 2022, after which he became an assistant professor at MIT Sloan School of Management in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His main research interests are in economic sociology, particularly issues around social engineering in the digital economy, the role of expertise in government, the creation of markets, and regulatory failure.