Arthur Dolgopolov

We will look at a particular strand of evolutionary game theory: stochastic stability. It is a tool for explaining human behavior in a variety of contexts (language, games, matchings, bargaining, networks, learning), especially useful when there is (1) noise and (2) assuming agents’ rationality may not be justified. Instead of being fully rational, agents follow a learning process or some similar Markov process (we will not be working with differential equations). Unlike the traditional concept of evolutionary stability, which neglects stochastic effects, stochastic stability offers a refinement that can be applied to a noisy system. It is an active field connecting biology, game theory, mathematics, linguistics, and computer science.

An overview of revealed preference characterizations in different domains. The focus is on theories that can be tested on choice data and the techniques commonly used to check rationalizability of behavior.

An umbrella course that briefly introduces several research areas, all in some way related to computation and algorithms. These range from applied algorithmic techniques to more philosophical models. The topics include mechanism design and game theory problems that are too difficult to solve on paper and therefore require a computer solver (the field of algorithmic mechanism design), as well as predicting the outcomes of learning and evolutionary processes with agents have restricted computational abilities.

A standard undergraduate class in international economics temporarily moved to online format. Foreign exchange market, balance of payment, foreign trade policies, and theories of international trade. The class is split into the traditional two parts: 1. Trade and policy. The first part of the class covers the basic models of international trade theory and discusses several empirical applications. 2. Money. The second part introduces money, interest rates, exchange rate regimes, and their interplay. The class includes both theory and empirical results, as well as practice problems. We will also look at real-world data and perform a data analysis exercise. No prior experience with statistical software is expected, and all the tools will be provided.

Syllabus 

An intensive summer class meant to familiarize undergraduate students with a wide range of applied topics in the discipline. This is a two-part course. We first cover welfare theory, to establish desired outcomes of public policy. Then we focus on applications, designing mechanisms that help society arrive to outcomes suggested by welfare analysis. The topics in the second part include education policy, problems of commons, fair division, collusion, price wars, political competition, congestion (e.g. airport slots), public procurement and auctions. We will look at concrete problems, but through tools provided by game theory and mechanism design.

Syllabus  Evaluations 

A quick review of important concepts in vector algebra, calculus, set theory, and proof-writing before graduate studies.

Syllabus  Class materials 

A graduate game theory class taught by Cesar Martinelli.

A graduate price theory class taught by Cesar Martinelli. This course develops the foundations of choice, price, and general equilibrium, as needed through out doctoral studies in economics, with some mathematical rigor.