Course Policies
Table of contents
About
This course introduces students to the basic concepts and techniques used in philosophical and economic analyses of individual and group decision making. The course is focused on individual decisions (decision theory), strategic decisions (game theory) and group decisions (social choice theory). Students will discuss the main foundational issues that arise when studying mathematical models of individual and group decision making, and explore key applications of these mathematical models in philosophy, politics and economics. Readings will be drawn from the literature in economics, philosophy, political science, psychology, and statistics. Topics include ordinal and cardinal utility theory, the Allais paradox, the Ellsberg paradox, a brief introduction to game theory and the Prisoner’s dilemma, voting methods, voting paradoxes, May’s Theorem, Arrow’s Theorem, judgement aggregation, the Condorcet Jury Theorem, and aggregating utilities. Time permitting, we will also discuss Newcomb’s paradox, strategic voting, Sen’s impossibility of the Paretian liberal, and gerrymandering.
Resources
Tophat: Please signup for tophat using the join code 384276. You must sign up for the Top Hat Pro subscription. Tophat will be used for in-class questions (during lectures) and for interactive study guides to supplement the readings and lectures.
Piazza: This term we will be using Piazza for class discussion. The system is highly catered to getting you help fast and efficiently from me and your classmates. Rather than emailing questions to me, I encourage you to post your questions on Piazza (available on the course website).
Gradescope: We will use Gradescope for your weekly problem sets. You should access Gradescope through the ELMS website. You have already been added to the Gradescope gradebook.
Weekly Schedule/Due Dates
The tentative weekly schedule:
- Each Monday, information about the weekly problem set, updates to the course website, updates to the online notes, updates to the weekly schedule will be announced using the ELMS announcement page.
- In-person lectures on Mondays and Wednesdays 12:00pm - 12:50pm in TWS 1100.
- Weekly discussion sections on Fridays (consult your schedule for the time and location of your discussion section).
- Throughout the week, use Piazza to ask questions about the problem sets, reading or lectures, or anything else you might want to discuss related to the course.
- Problem sets (submitted through Gradescope) will be assigned roughly every week and will be due Fridays at 11:00 PM.
- The participation questions (answered via tophat.com) should be answered during the lectures. You will have the opportunity to correct any mistakes to the in-class quizzes.
Course Requirements
The course requirements are:
Participation: There will be weekly “participation questions” assigned via Tophat. Almost all the questions will be asked and answered during the lecture. Each question will be worth 1 point. Some questions will be graded for participation only (you get 1 point as long as you answer the question before the deadline) and others questions will be graded for correctness (0.5 for participation and 0.5 for correctness). You are encouraged to discuss these problems with your classmates.
Problem Sets: There will be 10-12 problem sets. Problem sets will be submitted through Gradescope (accessible through the course website). You can use your notes, the readings, and the online textbook, but you should not discuss your answers with your classmates or use any AI tools, such as ChatGPT, to answer these questions.
Exams: The exams will be two exams this semester:
- Midterm: Rational Choice and Game Theory (tentatively scheduled for the beginning of week 8)
- Final Exam: The final will be cumulative (though more emphasis on material after the midterm exam) and given as an online exam during finals week. Consult the course website for more information about the final exam.
Late Policy
There will be weekly practice questions assigned on Tophat (most of the questions will be answered during lectures). You will have more than one chance to answer the questions. The deadline for correcting participation questions are as follows:
- All participation questions for weeks 1 - 7 must be completed before week 7.
- All participation questions for weeks 10 - 16 must be completed before the last week of class.
Problem sets will be assigned each week (usually on Mondays). You must submit your problem sets by Fridays at 11pm. The penalty for late problem sets is as follows:
- Problem sets submitted less than 24 hours after the due date (so, before Saturday at 11pm): no late penalty
- Problem sets submitted after Saturday at 11pm and before class on Monday: assignments will be graded, and a small late penalty may be applied (1% - 10% of the total number of points may be deducted).
- Problem sets submitted after class on Monday (without a valid excuse): the problem set will be lightly graded, and you will receive at most 1/2 the total points for the assignment.
Late exams will not be accepted (unless you contact me in advance to ask for a valid extension).
Grades
Grades will be assigned according to the following weights:
| Activity | Percent |
|---|---|
| Participation | 30% |
| Problem Sets | 40% |
| Midterm | 15% |
| Final Exam | 15% |
See undergraduate catalogue for description of grades, e.g., A+, A, A-, etc.
Support
It’s expected that some aspects of the course will take time to master, and the best way to master challenging material is to ask questions. For online questions, use Piazza.
UMD has many resources available to help students. Below are links to some resources that you might find helpful.