COS 445: Economics and Computation
Spring 2025
Resources
In this course we will study a variety of topics on the cusp between economics and computation. Topics to be covered include: game theory, auctions, mechanism design and cryptocurrencies.
The aim of the course is two-fold: (1) to understand the game-theoretic issues behind systems involving computation such as online networks, and (2) to learn how algorithms and algorithmic thinking can help with designing better decision and allocation mechanisms in the offline world.
Staff
Instructors: Matt Weinberg (smweinberg@), Mark Braverman (mbraverm@cs.)
Graduate TAs: Eric Xue (ex3782@), Jingyi Liu (jingyi.liu@), Amrit Daswaney (amrit_d@), Haichen Dong (haichend@), Aadityan Ganesh (gaadityan@gmail.), Kaya Alpturer (kalpturer@), Nikhil Pimpalkhare (nikhil.pimpalkhare@), Yuanhao Wang (yuanhao@)
Undergraduate Course Staff:
Course Links
- What to expect from this course: FAQ
- Prerequisite skills/math: cheatsheet on background skills/math required for this course
- Discussion and announcements: Ed
- Assignment submissions: codePost
- Course policies
Schedule
| Lecture | Monday/Wednesday | 09:30am-10:50am | Friend 101 | Matt/Mark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Precept P08 | Wednesday | 3:30pm-4:20pm | Friend 004 | Aadityan |
| Precept P09 | Wednesday | 3:30pm-4:20pm | Friend 008 | Eric |
| Precept P01 | Thursday | 3:30pm-4:20pm | Green Hall 0-S-9 | Kaya |
| Precept P02 | Thursday | 3:30pm-4:20pm | Friend 112 | Amrit |
| Precept (Background Material) | Thursday | 7:30pm-8:30pm | CS 105 | Stephen |
| Precept P11 | Friday | 11:00am-11:50am | Friend 006 | Haichen |
| Precept P12 | Friday | 11:00am-11:50am | Friend 111 | Jingyi |
| Precept P05 | Friday | 1:30pm-2:20pm | Friend 004 | Nikhil |
| Precept P06 | Friday | 1:30pm-2:20pm | Friend 111 | Yuanhao |
Office Hours
| Monday | 11:00am-12:00pm | Tea Room (CS 201) | Matt/Mark |
| Monday | 2:30pm-3:30pm | Tea Room (CS 201) | Haichen & Amrit |
| Monday | 4:00pm-5:00pm | Tea Room (CS 201) | Nikhil & Yuanhao |
| Monday | 5:30pm-6:30pm | Tea Room (CS 201) | Aadityan & Kaya |
| Tuesday | 2:00pm-3:00pm | Tea Room (CS 201) | Eric |
| Tuesday | 4:30pm-5:30pm | CS 302 | Nikhil |
| Wednesday | 11:00am-12:00pm | Tea Room (CS 201) | Matt/Mark |
| Wednesday | 2:00pm-3:00pm | Tea Room (CS 201) | Amrit |
| Thursday | 11:00am-12:00pm | Tea Room (CS 201) Note: (CS 105 on 03/27) | Jingyi |
| Thursday | 5:30pm-6:30pm | CS 105 | Kaya |
| Thursday | 6:30pm-7:30pm | CS 105 | Stephen (NO PSET) |
| Friday | 12:00pm-1:00pm | CS 402 Note:(CS 003 on 03/28) | Yuanhao |
| Friday | 4:00pm-5:00pm | CS 402 Note:(CS 105 on 03/28) | Haichen |
| Friday | 5:00pm-6:00pm | CS 402 | Aadityan |
Homework and Exams
Your homework must be submitted as a PDF file. You can use LaTeX or another math-document-editor to produce your homework PDF. If you have never used LaTeX, here is a short guide. You might also want to use Overleaf, which is an online LaTeX editor and compiler. Feel free to visit office hours for help installing/setting up LaTeX.
Here is a LaTeX template you may use for the homework, and a template for the collaboration statement here (thanks to Jude Muriithi'24 for this template!)
| Due Date | Assignment |
|---|---|
| 02/03 | Warmup PSet |
| 02/10 | PSet 1 |
| 02/17 | SD 1 | Leaderboard |
| 02/24 | PSet 1 |
| 03/03 | SD 2 | Leaderboard |
| 03/10* | Midterm |
| 03/24 | PSet 3 |
| 03/31 | SD 3 | Leaderboard |
| 04/07 | PSet 4 |
| 04/14 | SD 4 | Leaderboard |
| 04/21 | PSet 5 |
| 04/28 | SD 5 | Leaderboard |
| 05/11 | Final |
Lectures
Some shorthand for the reading material:
- Rx = Tim Roughgarden's lecture notes x
- KPx = Karlin and Peres chapter x
- EKx = Easley and Kleinberg chapter x
- NRTVx = Nisan, Roughgarden, Tardos and Vazirani chapter x (Click link --> resources --> Algorithmic Game Theory --> Algorithmic Game Theory)
- BCELPx = Brandt, Conitzer, Endriss, Lang, Procaccia chapter x (Click link --> resources --> resources --> online version. To find the password, visit Vince Conitzer's webpage)
| Date | Topic | Supplemental Reading Material |
|---|---|---|
| 01/27 | Braess' Paradox, Stable Matching I | R1, R2, KP10.1, KP10.2, NRTV10.4, Wikipedia |
| 01/29 | Stable Matching II | R1, R2, KP10.3, NRTV10.4 |
| 02/03 | Matching III | KP10.4, NRTV10.3 |
| 02/05 | Matching IV | This paper |
| 02/10 | Voting Theory I | KP13, BCELP2 |
| 02/12 | Voting Theory II | R4, BCELP2, EK23.6, NRTV10.2 |
| 02/17 | Game Theory I | KP4, R5, EK6 |
| 02/19 | Game Theory II | KP4, KP6, R5 |
| 02/24 | Linear Programming | Sections 1 & 4 here |
| 02/26 | Game Theory III | KP2 |
| 03/03 | Information Cascades | EK16 |
| 03/05 | No Lecture | |
| 03/10 | Spring Break | |
| 03/12 | Spring Break | |
| 03/17 | Auction Theory I | R13, EK9.1-9.5 |
| 03/19 | Auction Theory II | R14, R15, KP 15.1-15.3 |
| 03/24 | Auction Theory III | R14, R16, EK9.7 |
| 03/26 | Auction Theory IV | KP14.4, KP14.6 |
| 03/31 | Cryptocurrencies I | Chapter 1 |
| 04/02 | Cryptocurrencies II | "Selfish Mining" attack, notes on Ed |
| 04/07 | Scoring Rules | R17 |
| 04/09 | Cake Cutting | BCELP13, KP11 | 04/14 | Price of Anarchy I | R7, NRTV18.1-18.3, KP8.1, KP8.4 |
| 04/16 | Price of Anarchy II | R7, NRTV18.1-18.3, KP8.1, KP8.4 |
| 04/21 | Behavioral Game Theory I | Notes on Ed, R19 |
| 04/23 | Behavioral Game Theory II | R19 |