ECON 221
UBC
Fall 2024
Li, Hao
Course Outline
Professor: Li, Hao, 604-822-6685, Iona Building 201C, hao.li@ubc.ca, https://lihao.microeconomics.ca/.
Course Canvas page: https://canvas.ubc.ca/courses/146679/pages/econ-221-an-introduction-to-strategic-thinking.
Classes: Mondays and Wednesdays 2pm to 3:30pm, at SWNG-Floor 1-Room 122.
Announcements: Check the Announcement section on the Canvas page regularly for updates on all things about the course.
Teaching Assistants: William Fang (fangwill@student.ubc.ca) and Nathaniel Hope Tucker (nathaniel.hopetucker02@gmail.com). Every week William and Nathaniel will each conduct two identical one-hour tutorial sessions that you should have already signed up for. The two T.A.’s will also hold weekly office hours, William on Thursdays from 3:30 to 4:30 at Iona 434, and Nathaniel on Mondays from 5 to 6 at Iona 335.
Textbook: Games of Strategy (5th edition), by Dixit, Sheath, and McAdams, available in paperbacks and online through the UBC Bookstore.
Office hours: Tuesdays 2pm to 3:30pm.
Goals: The main goal of this course is to introduce you to the most fundamental concepts of (non-cooperative) game theory. The focus will be on concepts, with analysis and applications used to help you understand the concepts at deeper levels. The broad objective is to enable students to recognize the strategic element of social interactions. The modeling tools and concepts of Game Theory can then be applied to gather insights on the behavior in these interactions and to understand how changes to the rules of interactions will likely affect social outcomes.
Math level: Calculus is not required for this course. However, familiarity with basic concepts such as function, equation, and probability may be helpful.
Evaluation: Your grade in the course will be based on your marks in 10 homework assignments, 1 midterm test and 1 final exam. The total weight of the assignments in the course grade is 10%, so each assignment is worth 1 point out of 100. I will post assignments on the Canvas page; most of the assignments are from the textbook. You will have two weeks to complete an assignment and submit it online on Canvas. After the assignments are submitted the answers will be posted. The T.A.’s will not correct the assignments, and will grade them according to how much effort was put in: 0 for no effort or very little effort, 0.5 for some but insufficient effort, and 1 for sufficient effort. The weight on your midterm is 40% and the weight on your final is 50%. If your score on the final (out of 100) is better than your score on the midterm (out of 100), the final score will count for 90%. The midterm is tentatively set to Monday November 18 at 2pm in class. If for medical reasons or other emergencies you are unable to take the midterm, all 40% of the weight on the midterm will be automatically transferred to the final; there will not be a make-up test.
Structure: The course material organized around two main components: i) the theory component, which include the main modeling tools and theoretical concepts; ii) applications, which will illustrate the main concepts through examples drawn from a variety of fields/disciplines. The order of chapters in the textbook to be covered is as follows:
Lecture 1: Chapter 1 (Basic Ideas and Examples) 1, 2; Chapter 2 (How to Think about Games of Strategy) 2, 3; Chapter 3 (Games with Sequential Moves) 1, 2, 4, 3
Lecture 2: Chapter 4 (Simultaneous-move Games: Discrete Strategies) 1, 3, 4, 6, 5, 2, 7, 8
Lecture 3: Chapter 5 (Simultaneous-move Games: Continuous Strategies) 1, 2, 3
Lecture 4: Chapter 6 (Combining Sequential and Simultaneous Moves) 1, 2, 3
Lecture 5: Chapter 7 (Simultaneous-move Games: Mixed Strategies) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Lecture 6: Chapter 9 (Uncertainty and Information) 1, 2, 4, 5, 6
Lecture 7: Chapter 10 (The Prisoners’ Dilemma and Repeated Games) 1, 2
Lecture 8: Chapter 11 (Collective-action Games) 1, 2, 3, 5
Lecture 9: Chapter 14 (Design of Incentives) 2, 1, 5
Lecture 10: Chapter 15 (Auctions, Bidding Strategy, and Auction Design) 1, 3, 2
VSE Mandatory Academic Policies:
#1 - Student Success:
UBC provides resources to support student learning and to maintain healthy lifestyles but recognizes that sometimes crises arise and so there are additional resources to access including those for survivors of sexual violence. UBC values respect for the person and ideas of all members of the academic community. Harassment and discrimination are not tolerated nor is suppression of academic freedom. UBC provides appropriate accommodation for students with disabilities and for religious, spiritual and cultural observances. UBC values academic honesty and students are expected to acknowledge the ideas generated by others and to uphold the highest academic standards in all of their actions. Details of the policies and how to access support are available here: https://senate.ubc.ca/policies-resources-support-student-success/.
#2 - Policy on sharing course materials:
All the materials provided to you as part of this course are protected by copyright. All assignment instructions, quiz questions and answers, discussion questions, announcements, lecture slides, audio/video recordings, Canvas modules, and any other materials provided to you by your instructor or in the textbook are for use only by students enrolled in this course this term. Sharing any of these materials beyond this course, including by posting on file-sharing websites (e.g., CourseHero, Google Docs) is a violation of copyright law and an academic offence. Copying and pasting sentences from the lecture notes or the textbook (e.g., definitions) into for-profit software (e.g., Quizlet) is likewise a violation of copyright law, and an academic offence. Violations of this policy will be treated according to the provisos of the Code of Student Conduct. For further information about copyright law, please refer to (https://copyright.ubc.ca/students/).
#3 - Policy on Academic Honesty:
It is the policy of the Vancouver School of Economics to report all violations of UBC’s standards for academic integrity to the office of the Dean of Arts. All violations of academic integrity standards will result in a grade of zero on the relevant assessment (exam, paper, assignment etc.). Students who do not have a previous offence may have the option to enter into a diversionary process with the Dean of Arts to resolve their misconduct (https://academicintegrity.ubc.ca/diversionary-process/). Any student who has a previous academic offence will be referred to the President’s Advisory Committee on Student Discipline (PACSD) (https://universitycounsel.ubc.ca/homepage/guides-and-resources/discipline/). PACSD may impose additional penalties including: a transcript notation indicating that the student has committed an academic offence, zero in the course, and/or suspension or expulsion from the University. You are personally responsible for understanding and following the UBC’s policies for academic integrity: https://vancouver.calendar.ubc.ca/campus-wide-policies-and-regulations/academic-honesty-and-standards. A Canvas module has been made available you for this purpose titled “Avoiding Academic Misconduct”. It is your responsibility to read the materials in that module before submitting any work in this course. Speak to your instructor if you have any questions regarding the standard for academic integrity at UBC and/or the VSE polices on academic misconduct.
#4 - Policy on Academic Concessions:
There are only three acceptable grounds for academic concessions at UBC: unexpected changes in personal responsibilities that create a schedule conflict; medical circumstances; and compassionate grounds when the student experiences a traumatic event, sexual assault, or death in the family or of a close friend. Academic concessions for graded work and exams are granted for work that will be missed due to unexpected situations or circumstances. Situations that are expected (such as time constraints due to workload in other courses) or are predictable (such as being scheduled for paid work) are not grounds for academic concession.
Requests for academic concessions should be made before the due date for that graded work and/or the writing of the exam. UBC policy does not allow for concessions to students who have missed work because they have registered for a course after the due date for that work. You can read more about the rules for academic concessions here: https://students.ubc.ca/enrolment/academic-learning-resources/academic-concessions. Students in the Faculty of Arts who require a concession can apply for concessions using this form here: https://students.air.arts.ubc.ca/academic-concession-form/. Students in other Faculties should consult their faculty website on academic concessions. Please note that the role of the faculty advising office is to review the evidence and to either support or not support concession requests. The final decision to grant the request always rests with your instructor.