COS 445

Economics and Computation

Princeton University

 

Instructors: Matt Weinberg (smweinberg@).

 

Graduate TAs: Meryem Essaidi (messaidi@cs.), Joshua Gardner (jg41@), Kritkorn Karntikoon (kritkorn@), Anunay Kulshrestha (anunay@), Antonio Molina Lovett (amolina@), Barak Nehoran (bnehoran@).

 

Undergraduate Course Staff: Kiril Bangachev, Nathan Bergman, Alan Ding, Kimberly Ding, Jessie Fielding, Alice Gao, Jerry Huang, Joshua Ku, Jonathan Kutasov, William Li, Aaron Lichtblau, Betsy Pu, Emily Ryu, Michelle Woo.

 

Lectures and Precepts: (Please see Ed for all Zoom links)

Tuesday/Thursday 1:30 – 2:50pm, Zoom.

Precept P01 (Barak): Wednesday 7:30 – 8:20pm, Zoom.

Precept P02 (Kritkorn): Wednesday 7:30 – 8:20pm, Zoom.

Precept P03/P04 (Antonio): Thursday, 7:30 – 8:20pm, Zoom.

Precept P04 (Joshua): Friday 1:30 – 2:20pm, Zoom.

Precept P05 (Anunay): Friday 2:30 – 3:20pm, Zoom.

 

Office Hours: (Please see Ed for the gather link)

Mondays 10-11am, gather: Kritkorn

Mondays 2-3pm, gather: Anunay.

Mondays 4-5pm, gather: Joshua, Antonio.

Mondays 5-6pm, gather: Meryem, Barak.

Tuesdays 9:30 – 11:30am, gather: Anunay.

Tuesdays 3-4pm, gather: Matt.

Wednesdays 5-6pm, gather: Meryem.

Wednesdays 9pm-10pm, gather: Barak (reserved for questions about background material, and not assignments).

Wednesdays 11pm – 12am, gather: Kritkorn.

Thursdays 10-11am, gather: Kritkorn.

Thursdays 3-4pm, gather: Matt.

Fridays 4-5pm, gather: Joshua (reserved for questions about background material, and not assignments).

Fridays 5-6pm, gather: Antonio.

 

Ed: https://edstem.org/us/courses/4370/discussion/ (if you cannot access Ed because you “aren’t enrolled,” please email me to be added).

 

Course 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.

 

The final is now available, and due Friday, May 14^th at 11:59pm: Final.

 

Submit all PDF assignments to codePost here: codePost (see Ed for enroll link).

 

Miscellaneous Material:

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

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

-         Guidelines for how Strategy Designs are graded: Strategy Design Grading Guidelines.

 

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
2/2	Braess' Paradox, Stable Matching I	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braess'_paradox R1, R2, KP10.1, KP10.2, NRTV10.4
2/4	Stable Matching II	R1, R2, KP10.3, NRTV10.4
2/9	Matching III	KP10.4, NRTV10.3
2/11	Matching IV	This paper
2/16	Voting Theory I	KP13 BCELP2
2/18	Voting Theory II	R4, BCELP2, EK23.6, NRTV10.2
2/23	Game Theory I	KP4, R5, EK6
2/25	Game Theory II	KP 4, KP6, R5
3/2	Linear Programming	Sections 1 & 4 here
3/4	Game Theory III	KP2
3/9	Information Cascades	EK16
3/11	Scoring Rules	R17
3/16	Spring Break
3/18	No Lecture
3/23	Auction Theory I	R13, EK9.1-9.5
3/25	Auction Theory II	R14, R15, KP 15.1-15.3
3/30	Auction Theory III	R14, R16, EK9.7
4/1	Auction Theory IV	KP14.4, KP14.6
4/6	Cryptocurrencies I	Chapter 1
4/8	Cryptocurrencies II	``Selfish Mining'' attack, notes on Piazza
4/13	Price of Anarchy I	R7, NRTV18.1-18.3, KP8.1, KP8.4
4/15	Price of Anarchy II	R7, NRTV18.1-18.3, KP8.1, KP8.4
4/20	Cake Cutting	BCELP13, KP11
4/22	Behavioral Game Theory I	Notes on Piazza, R19
4/27	Behavioral Game Theory II	R19