Syllabus

A list of topics covered in this course is available in the calendar below.

Course Meeting Times

Lectures: 2 sessions / week, 1.5 hours / session

Recitations: 1 session / week, 1.5 hours / session

Prerequisites

Microeconomic Theory I (14.121), Contract Economics (14.281), or permission of instructors.

Requirements (Overview)

• Complete 4 homework assignments
• Make a 25-minute presentation
• No exams, no paper required. Students are encouraged to start, write, and present their papers.

Textboook

The primary book for this course is:

  Bolton, Patrick, and Mathias Dewatripont. Contract Theory. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2005. ISBN: 9780262025768.

Please see readings for more information.

Assignments

There are 4 homework assignments. You will have at least two weeks to complete each one. (Some) will have a problem: to ask a question and provide an answer.

Presentation

Paper is chosen by the student or suggested by the professor. Own relevant papers are allowed. Style: 25-minutes conference presentation. Includes: motivation, contribution, main points, and critical analysis. Also, would require written short report briefly outlining contribution of the paper and of related papers. In case, two or more related papers are presented by several students, one report from the group will suffice.

Students are also required to discuss the paper (and presentation) of at least one other student. (Since the presentations are made two per class, naturally presenters provide comments on each other). It is important to have these discussions as it engages at least two students on the same project.

Calendar