Theory
Formalize how institutions compress social reality, allocate judgment, and create representation wedges.
Behavior · computation · governance
How should
intelligent institutions
decide?
We study how institutions make decisions about people—and how people make decisions within institutions. Our research spans work, collective judgment, education, local law, and public capacity.
Institutional representation58% fidelity
what the institution can see
More tractableMore faithful
A workable institutional model
The institution retains enough detail to act while making its simplifications visible and contestable.
What we study
Explore the research01
Work, pay, and motivation
What makes pay motivating?
02Deliberation and collective judgment
How does a group arrive at a decision?
03Education and technical change
How do people learn to exercise technical judgment?
04Local law and the rule of law
Can people see and understand the rules that govern them?
05Public capacity and accountability
What turns public commitments into useful action?
01
The argument
Our point of departure
Institutions do not act on the world directly. They act on representations of it.
A risk score, legal category, case file, performance metric, or algorithm is a compressed model of reality. The model may be necessary. It is never neutral.
02
Institutions turn complexity into decisions.
Rules, categories, procedures, and technologies are representations of reality. They make collective action possible by deciding what will count.
02
Where we build
Two major initiatives
One research program. Two ways into the work.
03
The program
How the work fits together
From a formal object to a repair program.
Evidence
Study how information, discretion, timing, language, and organizational rules change real decisions.
Infrastructure
Build datasets and observatories that make previously invisible institutional systems measurable.
Repair
Design and test tools that help institutions reason without surrendering responsibility.
Selected work in motion
Empirical problems that reveal institutional design.
The Lab
People who study—and build—responsible institutions.
Faculty Director
Diag Davenport
Assistant Professor of Technology Policy, Governance, and SocietyPhD Student
Deja Dunlap
Year 1PhD Student
Carl Illustrisimo
Year 1PhD Student
Ella Montgomery
Year 2PhD Student
Lauren Chambers
Year 5Postdoctoral Scholar
Nela Mrchkovska
Local Law ObservatoryData Scientist
Evalynna Ong
Public Interest Technology ClinicBellwether Postdoctoral Scholar
Denis Peskoff
UC BerkeleyUndergraduate Student