Designing Economic Mechanisms: Theory and Practice

Have you ever wondered how tech giants make tens of billions of dollars by running auctions for words? How governments allocate electromagnetic spectrum to competing cell phone providers to ensure its effective use? How medical residents are matched to hospitals, taking into account the preferences of both sides? This class will cover the design of these and other economic mechanisms, discussing both the underlying theoretical frameworks and the practical applications and challenges. This course is an Advanced Applications option in the Economics menu, and assumes solid prior knowledge of economics, calculus, and probability theory.