Socio-Economic Coordination Mechanisms Design: Conceptual Model

This study discusses socio-economic coordination mechanism design, which allows, in comparison with the classical mechanism design theory, to obtain a wider class of solutions, but with the loss of the ability to use the mechanism design's mathematical models and methods. The concepts of the coordinating activities and the basic forms of coordination of socio-economic agents are defined. The fundamental coordination process, which is present in all coordinated systems, is described. On this methodological basis the prerequisites, fundamentals and properties of socio-economic coordination are considered. A conceptual model of coordination is proposed, including a three-step algorithm for the coordination mechanism designing. As illustrations, based on the proposed algorithm some of the well-known coordination mechanisms are considered. Using the conceptual model of coordination, possible changes in the design and properties of coordination mechanisms because of the digitalization of socio-economic processes are analyzed. It is shown that digitalization leads to the convergence of the characteristics of basic forms of coordination and to the unification of their elements in digital form. This opens the possibility of creating a distributed computer system that performs the functions of a universal coordination mechanism. As one of the directions for the further development of this study, the creation of a computer agent-based simulation model of economy/society with the embedded coordination mechanisms is proposed. The possibility of creating a unified model and general theory of socio-economic coordination, which can serve as the methodological basis for creating a general theory of socio-economic activity, is discussed.