COS 445

Economics and Computation

Princeton University

 

Instructors: Matt Weinberg (smweinberg@), Sahil Singla (singla@cs.), Jérémie Lumbroso (lumbroso@cs.).

 

TAs: James Bartusek (bartusek@cs.), Linda Cai (tcai@cs.), Meryem Essaidi (messaidi@cs.), Jiaxin Guan (jguan@cs.) , Yi Zhang (yz7@cs.).

 

Graders: Maryam Bahrani, Mayee Chen, Trisha Datta, David Fan, Daniel Greenberg, Jonathan Jow, Walter Li, Dylan Mavrides, Georgy Noarov, Jose Rodriguez Quinones, Seyoon Ragavan, Andrew Wonnacott, Jinjin Zhao, Bill Zhang, Bryan Zhu, Eitan Zlatin, Albert Zuo.

 

Lectures: Tuesday/Thursday 1:30 – 2:50pm, Frick Chemistry Building, B02.

Precept P01 (James): Thursday 7:30 – 8:20pm, Friend 009.

Precept P02 (Jiaxin): Friday 1:30 – 2:20pm, Friend 008.

Precept P03 (Yi): Friday 2:30 – 3:20pm, Friend 008.

Precept P04 (Meryem): Wednesday 7:30 – 8:20pm, Engineering Quad E-Wing E225.

Precept P05 (Linda): Wednesday 7:30 – 8:20pm, Friend 008.

 

Office Hours:

Mondays 1:30 – 3pm, CS Building 302: Linda (1:30 – 3), Jiaxin (1:30 – 2:30).

Mondays 4-5:30pm, 194 Nassau St, Room 213: James (4-5), Linda (5-5:30), Meryem (4:30 – 5:30).

Mondays 6-7pm, CS Building 313: Yi.

Tuesdays 12:15 – 1:15, 194 Nassau St, Room 213: Meryem.

Tuesdays 3-5pm, 194 Nassau St, Room 222: Matt.

Wednesdays 3:30-5pm, 194 Nassau St, Room 213: James (4-5), Jiaxin  (3:30 – 4:30).

Thursdays 3-4:30pm, 194 Nassau St, Room 219: Sahil.

Thursdays 6-7pm, CS Building 313: Yi.

Fridays 11am-12pm, Friend 010.

Fridays 3:30 – 4:30pm, 194 Nassau St, Room 213.

 

Piazza: http://piazza.com/princeton/spring2019/cos445.

 

Grading/Collaboration Policy: 445 Course Policies.

 

Homework: Homeworks will be posted below when they become available. Here is a LaTeX template you may use for the homework, and here is a short guide to LaTeX. Feel free to visit office hours for help installing/setting up LaTeX. Please visit Piazza for instructions on how to enroll through Mechanical TA.

 

Miscellaneous Material:

-         A "cheatsheet" for math required for this course.

-         An "FAQ" on what to expect from this course.

 

Lecture Notes: Below is a table with a tentative plan for each lecture and corresponding reading material. Some shorthand for the reading material:

Rx = Tim Roughgarden's lecture notes x.

KPx = Karlin and Peres chapter x.

EKx = Easley and Kleinberg chapter x.

NRTVx = Nisan, Roughgarden, Tardos and Vazirani chapter x (Click link --> resources --> Algorithmic Game Theory --> Algorithmic Game Theory).

BCELPx = Brandt, Conitzer, Endriss, Lang, Procaccia chapter x (Click link --> resources --> resources --> online version. To find the password, visit Vince Conitzer's webpage).

 

 

Date	Topic	Supplemental Reading Material
2/5	Braess' Paradox, Stable Matching I	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braess'_paradox R1, R2, KP10.1, KP10.2, NRTV10.4
2/7	Stable Matching II	R1, R2, KP10.3, NRTV10.4
2/12	Matching III	KP10.4, NRTV10.3
2/14	Matching IV	This paper
2/19	Voting Theory I	KP13 BCELP2
2/21	Voting Theory II	R4, BCELP2, EK23.6, NRTV10.2
2/26	Game Theory I	KP4, R5, EK6
2/28	Game Theory II	KP 4, KP6, R5
3/5	Linear Programming	Sections 1 & 4 here
3/7	Game Theory III	KP2
3/12	Information Cascades	EK16
3/14	Scoring Rules	R17
3/19	Spring Break
3/21	Spring Break
3/26	Auction Theory I	R13, EK9.1-9.5
3/28	Auction Theory II	R14, R15, KP 15.1-15.3
4/2	Auction Theory III	R14, R16, EK9.7
4/4	Auction Theory IV	KP14.4, KP14.6
4/9	Cryptocurrencies I	Chapter 1
4/11	Cryptocurrencies II	``Selfish Mining'' attack, notes on Piazza
4/16	Cryptocurrencies III	``Selfish Mining'' attack, notes on Piazza
4/18	Cake Cutting	BCELP13, KP11
4/23	Price of Anarchy I	R7, NRTV18.1-18.3, KP8.1, KP8.4
4/25	Price of Anarchy II	R7, NRTV18.1-18.3, KP8.1, KP8.4
4/30	Behavioral Game Theory I	Notes on Piazza, R19
5/2	Behavioral Game Theory II	R19