What can ‘real’ economies and the economists who run them learn from these virtual economies? How can a focus on social fabric -- rather than just on efficiency and output –usefully inform national economies? OII Research Fellow Vili Lehdonvirta discusses his new book from MIT Press (with E.Castronova): Virtual Economies: Design and Analysis. It aims to bring virtual economies to the attention of social scientists, and secondly to help digital designers use social science and economics scholarship when designing their virtual economies.