Course Policies
Table of contents
About
This course introduces and critically examines mathematical models of decision-making at individual and group levels, with applications in philosophy, politics, and economics. Three main areas are covered: decision theory, studying individual choice under uncertainty; game theory, analyzing strategic interactions among rational agents; and social choice theory, investigating how groups reach collective decisions.
Topics include ordinal and cardinal utility theory, the Allais and Ellsberg paradoxes, an introduction to game theory, voting methods and their paradoxes, and judgment and utility aggregation. Core theorems examined include May’s Theorem, Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem, and the Condorcet Jury Theorem. Additional topics may include Newcomb’s Paradox, strategic voting, and Sen’s Impossibility of the Paretian Liberal.
Readings are taken from economics, philosophy, political science, psychology, and statistics.
Resources
Tophat: Please signup for tophat using the join code 616833. 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).
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 0310.
- 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 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 lectures or sections. Some questions are “survey questions” that will be graded for participation only (i.e., you get full credit as long as you answer the question before the deadline) and other questions will be graded for correctness (i.e., you get 0.5 points for participation and 0.5 points for correctness). You are encouraged to discuss these problems with your classmates.
Problem Sets: There will be 10-12 problem sets. 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: There will be two exams this semester:
- Midterm: The midterm will contain an in-person portion and an online portion. The in-person portion will be given during the lecture time and the online portion will be online. The midterm is tentatively scheduled for the beginning of week 7.
- Final Exam: The final will be cumulative (though more emphasis on material after the midterm exam) and given in-person during finals week. Consult the course website for more information about the final exam.
Late Policy
You will be given a chance to correct any mistakes on the participation questions answered during lectures or the discussion section. The deadline for correcting participation questions are as follows:
- Any survey question must be answered during the lecture or discussion section.
- All participation questions that are graded for correctness assigned in a week will be due by Friday at 11pm of the following week.
- Each student can ask for at most 3 extensions to complete the participation questions for a week.
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 | 30% |
| Midterm | 20% |
| Final Exam | 20% |
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.