The Skeptical Economist

A course in intermediate economics and numeracy

Reading:

Textbook:

Patrick M. Emerson, Intermediate Microeconomics
Available online: https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/956

Supplementary Text:

Theodore L. Turocy and Bernhard von Stengel, Game Theory
Available online: http://www.cdam.lse.ac.uk/Reports/Files/cdam-2001-09.pdf

Probability Theory:

David Diez, Mine Cetinkaya-Rundel and Christopher D Barr, Openintro Statisics
Available online: https://www.openintro.org/book/os/

Recommended Reading:

David K. Levine, Is Behavioral Economics Doomed?
Available online: https://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0021 

David K. Levine, Artificial Intelligence vs Humans: a field report from an economist?
Available online: https://www.dklevine.com/skeptical/ai.pdf

Lectures:

1. The Skeptical Economist

• Economists, Specialists and Charlatans (optional: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jb7_srPuT4E)
• Monopoly  (Emerson Chapter 15)

2. Dominance

• Duopoly and the Prisoner’s Dilemma (Emerson Chapter 17, Turocy and von Stengel Chapter 3)
• Dominance and the Second Price Auction (Turocy and von Stengel Chapter 9, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vickrey_auction)

3. Nash Equilibrium

• Nash Equilibrium and Coordination Games  (Emerson Chapter 17, Turocy and von Stengel Chapter 4)
• Cournot Equilibrium (Emerson Chapter 18)
• The Sustainable Economy

4. Dynamic Games

• Extensive Form and Subgame Perfect Equilibrium (Turocy and von Stengel Chapter 6)
• Information Sets and the Normal Form (Turocy and von Stengel Chapter 7)
• The Finite Horizon Prisoner’s Dilemma (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repeated_game)

5. Time, Investment and Repeated Games

• Discounting and Present Value (Emerson Chapter 24)
• The Repeated Prisoner’s Dilemma (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grim_trigger)

6. Probability Theory and Investment (Emerson Chapter 23, Kunin Chapters 2,5, Diez, Cetinkaya-Rundel and Barr Chapter 3)

7. Expected Utility and Risk Aversion (Emerson Chapter 23)

• Expected Utility
• Risk Aversion
• The Economics of ChatGPT

8. Bayes Theorem, Dynamic Programming and the Value of Information (Diez, Cetinkaya-Rundel and Barr Chapter 3)

9. Mixed Strategy Equilibrium (Turocy and von Stengel Chapter 5)

10. Common Sense, Cost Benefit Analysis, Numeracy and Climate Change