No teaching in Spring 2012
Courses taught in Fall 2011
ECON 404 - Games and Economics (undergraduate)
Game theory analyzes situations in which two or more decision-makers (individuals, firms, political parties, countries) interact in a strategic manner. It has proved useful in helping us understand situations involving conflict and/or cooperation and has found many applications in economics, business, political science, law, social psychology, and biology. Among those applications are firm competition in markets, technological races, auctions, voting behavior, cultural norms, import tariffs, etc. The aim of this course is twofold. First and most importantly, we will provide a systematic introduction to the tools of game theory. We will learn how to construct theoretical frameworks that capture the key elements of strategic interactions and determine the most likely outcome in any given game. Second, we will illustrate the theoretical concepts with some specific applications. We will also discuss some shortcomings of the theories developed in the course and discuss alternative formulations.
ECON 503 - Microeconomic Theory I (PhD)
The objective of ECON 503 and ECON 603 is to train PhD students in the basic concepts and techniques of modern microeconomic theory. This part of the course focuses on (i) Game Theory, (ii) Competition in Markets with special applications to industrial organization, and (iii) Economics of Information (Mas Collel - Whinston - Green, chapters 7-14 and 23).