How do states build vital institutions for market development? Too often, governments confront technical or political barriers to providing the rule of law, contract enforcement, and loan access. In From Click to Boom: The Political Economy of E-commerce in China (PUP, 2024), Lizhi Liu proposes a digital solution: institutional outsourcing—where governments strategically delegate institutional development and enforcement to digital platforms. In this public-private collaboration, private platforms take the lead in building robust economic institutions within a weak rule-of-law environment, while the state either acquiesces or actively partners in the process. The resulting e-commerce boom has profoundly shaped China’s economic and governance model. In this workshop, Liu will discuss how she leverages a new technological context to examine classic questions in institutional economics. She will also share insights on collecting and combining qualitative and quantitative data—including over 200 interviews, an original survey, an RCT, and a proprietary dataset of 30 million transactions—as well as practical tips for conducting research in non-Western contexts.