Program Overview

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Program Overview

The Mechanism Design course is a highly theoretical program that focuses on the economics of asymmetric information and ways to reveal it. The course explores how to design environments to induce desirable behavior, with real-world applications including market design, social choice, and voting mechanisms.

Course Content

The course covers the fundamental ideas behind mechanism design, including the main trade-offs arising in information extraction problems. Students will learn to set up policy, trade, and management issues as mechanism design problems and propose mechanisms that induce desired outcomes in various environments.

Learning Outcomes

After completing the course, students are expected to be able to:

• Account for the fundamental ideas behind and approaches to mechanism design
• Define main trade-offs arising in information extraction problems
• Identify the limitations of existing approaches to mechanism design
• Explain and discuss key theoretical concepts from academic articles
• Set up policy, trade, and management issues as mechanism design problems
• Propose mechanisms that induce the desired outcomes in various environments
• Analyze the drawbacks of existing institutions and suggest alternatives

Teaching and Learning Methods

The course material is presented through a mix of classical lectures and recorded videos, supplemented by problem sets that are partially discussed in class.

Literature

The main source of material is slides and lecture notes, with various papers and surveys referenced throughout the course. A recommended textbook is "Game theory and mechanism design" by Narahari, Yadati.

Recommended Prerequisites

The course is highly theoretical and relies on students' knowledge of basic mathematics and game theory tools. It is recommended to have followed "Microeconomics III" or a similar course prior to taking this course.

Course Type and Workload

The course is a single subject course with a workload of 206 hours, including 42 hours of lectures, 152 hours of preparation, and 12 hours of exam.

Language and ECTS

The course is taught in English and is worth 7.5 ECTS.

Programme Level and Duration

The course is a full-degree master and Ph.D. program that runs for one semester.

Placement and Price

The course is placed in the autumn semester, and information about admission and tuition fees can be found on the university's website.

Study Board and Contracting Department

The study board is the Department of Economics, Study Council, and the contracting department is the Department of Economics.

Course Coordinator and Teacher

The course coordinator and teacher is Egor Starkov.

Timetable

The course has 3 hours of lectures every week from week 36 to 50, except week 42.

Exam

The exam is a home assignment of 12 hours, and the type of assessment is individual. The marking scale is a 7-point grading scale, and there is no external censorship.

Re-exam

The re-exam is the same as the ordinary exam.

Criteria for Exam Assessment

Students are assessed on the extent to which they master the learning outcome for the course. To obtain the top grade "12", the student must demonstrate an excellent performance displaying a high level of command of all aspects of the relevant material. To obtain the passing grade "02", the student must demonstrate a minimal acceptable level of the knowledge, skills, and competencies listed in the learning outcomes.