This collection of essays represents responses by over eighty scholars to an unusual request:
give your high level assessment of the field of economic design as broadly construed. Where do
we come from? Where do we go from here? The book editors invited short informal reflections
expressing deeply felt but hard to demonstrate opinions unsupported speculation and
controversial views of a kind one might not normally risk submitting for review. The
contributors - both senior researchers who have shaped the field and promising younger
researchers - responded with a diverse collection of provocative pieces including:
retrospective assessments or surveys of the field opinion papers reflections on critical
points for the development of the discipline proposals for the immediate future science
fiction and many more. The readers should have fun reading these unusual pieces - as much as
the contributors enjoyed writing them.
