EC 3395B-001: Economics of Information

Course Syllabus

Registration

You are responsible for ensuring you are registered in the correct courses. If you are not registered in this course, the Department will not release your marks until your registration is corrected. You may check your timetable by using the Login on the Student Services website at https://studentservices.uwo.ca/secure/index.cfm. If you notice a problem, please contact your faculty academic counsellor right away.

Prerequisite Note

The prerequisite for this course is Economics 2261A/B. Some knowledge of game theory and probability theory is helpful but not required.

You are responsible for ensuring that you have successfully completed all course prerequisites, and that you have not taken an antirequisite course. Lack of prerequisites may not be used as a basis for appeal. If you are found to be ineligible for a course, you may be removed from it at any time and you will receive no adjustment to your fees. This decision cannot be appealed.

If you find that you do not have the course prerequisites, it is in your best interest to drop the course well before the end of the add/drop period. Your prompt attention to this matter will not only help protect your academic record, but will ensure that spaces become available for students who require the course in question for graduation.

Course Description

This course is an introduction to the field of economics of information, which studies a wide range of settings where the economic agents are asymmetrically informed. The course will cover the following topics: (i) single person decision problem under uncertainty; (ii) games with incomplete information; (iii) contract theory and mechanism and market design.

Evaluation

Problem sets (a total of 5): 30%
Midterm (February 10 in class): 30%
Final (TBA): 40%

Make-up Exams

There will be no makeup exams. If you miss the exam then you get a zero on the exam. The only exceptions are medical emergency and out-of-town athletic or academic duty at the time of the exam. In cases of medical emergency, the student should follow University procedures and provide medical documentation to the Dean’s office as explained under “Medical Documentation” on the website http://studentservices.uwo.ca. In other cases, you should contact me at least two weeks prior to the date of the exam to schedule a makeup exam.

Text

There is no required textbook for this course. The lectures will be self-contained and sufficient for the problem sets and the exams.

The students may find it useful to have some introductory game theory textbook similar to:

Gibbons, Robert (1992): Game Theory for Applied Economists, Princeton University Press.

 

Also from this web page:

General Information

Course Material