DOLFINS addresses the global challenge of making the financial system better serve society. It does so by placing scientific evidence and citizen participation at the centre of the policy process in finance. The project strives to give scientific evidence and citizen participation central roles in the policy process concerning finance. DOLFINS focuses on two crucial and interconnected policy areas: How to achieve financial stability and how to facilitate the long-term investments required by the transition to a more sustainable, more innovative, less unequal and greener EU economy. We delivered quantitative tools to evaluate policies aiming to tame systemic risk and to foster sustainable investment. The tools are based on fundamental research combining network models and algorithmic game theory with broader economic insights. This approach provides a more satisfactory understanding of credit, risk and sustainable investments in an interconnected world. We investigated how to engage citizens in the early stage of the policy making process and developed evidence-based narratives in order to better shape policies in the public interest. To this end, our project took advantage of semantic web technologies, big data and ICT in general. Given the highly technical nature of key issues in finance, we have also explored how ICT and art can facilitate citizen engagement through innovative narratives, leading to better coordinated actions of stakeholders. Overall, DOLFINS is an ambitious and yet very pragmatic project that goes at the core of what Global Systems Science is about.
O1. Investigate, by means of network models and algorithmic game theory, the process of endogenous money creation in financial networks. Design incentives to discourage financial agents from strategically exploiting complexity, and asymmetries in information and information processing speed. Design incentives to channel funds towards long-term, socially inclusive and sustainable investments and compare possible institutional structures for this purpose.
O2. Provide quantitative evaluations of policy proposals in the public debate, both from the point of view of systemic risk and sustainability, covering: (a) the EU banking structural reform and the G-SIFI’s, (b) the global network of pension funds (c) the EU Long-Term Financing measures and social finance (d) the international monetary system.
O3. Demonstrate how we can create awareness on the role of finance in society and on the influence exerted over the policy process by the financial industry and by European citizens. Demonstrate how we can engage citizens online and enable their participation in the policy making process by having a say over the management of their bank and pension savings. Investigate, through a pilot platform, what kind of ICT tools and financial instruments could facilitate the collective action of citizens to demand investments that are more in line with their societal values.
