Econ 211A Fall 2001 September 25 ECONOMICS OF UNCERTAINTY, INFORMATION AND GAMES Course Outline and Reading Lists Econ 211A will focus
primarily on decision-making under asymmetric information. We will begin the quarter with
a look at a very simple example of mechanism design and then focus in depth on two major
parts of the literature - - Screening/Signalling and Mechanism Design (one major topic
will be auctions.) The final weeks of the
quarter will be on topics which you select. On Thursday of week 2, all
students (whether formally enrolled or not) will be expected to hand in a copy of a recent
paper (1990's) in a well known Journal and a 1-2 page discussion of why you think it might
be worth exploring in more detail. It is not necessary to master the material at this
point. The goal is simply to get you to look at what people are working on in the field of
asymmetric information and decide what interests you. At a later date those enrolled will
form teams and each team will write up a report on some topic (not necessarily the one you
chose in week 1.) You should take a look at
the papers onthe class web-site to see some of the topics chosen in the last couple of
years. You may NOT choose these same papers! Your grade in 211A will depend
upon: (1) your Final Exam, (2) your homework exercises, and (3) the team project (4)
participation in the discussions of the team presentations. The "text book" is an
introduction to a much wider range of topics than the ones we will cover in this course.
My hope is that the book has been written clearly enough that you will find it a useful
introduction to the broader literature. Text book: Hirshleifer and Riley
"The Analytics of Uncertainty and Information" Cambridge University Press, 1994 Other Books Kreps, David M., "A Course
in Microeconomic Theory," Princeton University Press (1989). Mas-Colell, Whinston and Green
(MWG) "Microeconomic Theory," First Edition, Oxen, 1995 The New Palgrave Dictionary of
Economic Doctrine Macmillan (1987) P. Klemperer (ed.) "The
Economic Theory of Auctions" Edward Elgar (2000)
E. Maskin and John Riley “Monopoly
with Incomplete Information” Rand
Journal Summer 1984
In the final weeks every student will participate in a student
presentation. Below you can see the reports from previous years. This year you must
pick some other paper or set of papers to review and explain.
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