The module aims at introducing students to different areas of economic theory scrutinized with the aid of empirical analysis and experimental research. Subjects covered may vary from year to year with the ultimate goal of showing, through a reasoned selection, the breadth of issues that are the subject of study in Economics and that are not normally touched upon at the undergraduate level.
Articles, handouts, and other stuff made available by the lecturer.
Learning Objectives
By the end of the course the student will have gained an understanding of the benefits, and also the limitations, of using economic theory and its methods to analyze relevant economic and social issues.
Prerequisites
Principles of Microeconomics and Game Theory.
Teaching Methods
Lectures, class experiments and discussions, lab sessions, group work.
Further information
See the course Moodle page at e-l.unifi.it.
The scheduled class hours will be 6 per week. During the first 8 weeks the lecturer will present the planned program, while in the last 4 weeks the students will present the result of their group work.
Type of Assessment
The final assessment will be the result of an ongoing evaluation process.
1) You will get the most out of this class if you (1) attend class, (2) complete all the readings, and (3) engage (take detailed notes, watch the videos and supplementary content, participate in class discussions, work carefully on your group work project, cooperate with your peers, etc.).
2) Homework assignments
You will be asked to complete a series of problem sets and/or to comment on some of the topics presented in class.
You need to show that you made a good-faith effort to work on each question.
You may (and should!) work together on the problem sets, but you must turn in your own answers.
Homework will receive peer review. This implies that each student, after turning in his or her own paper, will have to correct and grade the papers of some peers. The whole procedure will be handled through the course's e-learning page.
The lecturer will then take care of checking the outcome of the proofs handed in as well as the assessments made.
3) Group work, essay, and in-class presentation
After each lecture, the lecturer will suggest some possible extensions and insights into the topics presented. The students, divided into working groups, will have to choose one of these topics and study it in depth following the recommended literature.
The result of such work should be summarized in a final report and presented in class.
4) Final exam
A final exam including both multiple-choice questions, and open-ended questions will complete the assessing process.
Course program
Subjects covered vary from year to year and may touch on topics such as information economics, auctions, behavioral game theory and social preferences, ethics and economics. Brief diversions into specific sub-fields such as law and economics, and socioeconomics are also possible. In addition, specific advanced topics in game theory (repeated, evolutionary, cooperative, and psychological games) can be briefly (and simply) introduced in an instrumental way to the presentation of the main subjects.
Program I am planning to cover in this academic year (but changes are possible)
Rationality in games:
- The beauty contest. Full rationality vs. level k reasoning
- Experiments on the guessing game
- The prisoner's dilemma in the wild: strictly and weakly dominant strategies
- Cheap talk and non-credible threats
Social preferences in games:
- The public goods game
- Experiments on the public goods game. Altruism, confusion and strategy
- The ultimatum game
- Experiments on the ultimatum game. The Binmore critique. Fairness and strategy
- Ultimatum game in the wild: the role of culture in shaping humans' behaviour.
- The trust game
- Experiments on the trust game. The emergence of trust in young children
Introduction to psychological game theory
Theories of individual decision making with social preferences.
Introduction to repeated games: finite, infinite and indefinite horizon
Introduction to evolutionary game theory
Cooperation and human evolution: Axelrods' olympiad
The evolution of social preferences: experiments with animals
Very (very) short introduction to cooperative game theory
Applications of cooperative game theory
- Bargaining
- The law and economics of property rights
Ethics and economics
- Introduction to the economics of crime
- Neo-classical theories of crime. The determinants of the level of criminal activity: The Roe vs. Wade case
- Alternative approaches to the Economics of Crime
- Experiments on cheating
Ethics and rationality: the trolley problem