ECON 4620

Game Theory and Applications

Syllabus – Fall 2021

Instructor Richard Stahl

Office: 2308 BEC e-mail: abyssean@lsu.edu
Office Hours: MW 7:00 – 8:00 AM or by appointment

Section 1: Time: MW 12:00 – 1:20; Place: 1700 BEC

Required Text: Harrington, Joseph E., Jr.; Games, Strategies, and Decision Making: 2nd Edition; Macmillan;
ISBN: 978-1-4292-3996-7; https://www.vitalsource.com/referral?term=9781464156908

Also Required: Get familiar with either the Equation Editor in Word or the Mathcha.io website. I am
requiring you to type all mathematical equations in all assignments. Tutorial videos will be on Moodle
to get you started with the basics of how to use both.

Course Objective: Methods to analyze optimal or strategic behavior in situations with multiple
interactive decision makers. Topics range from the formal analysis of parlor games, cold war, auctions,
voting behavior to pricing decisions of firms.

Moodle: This course is on Moodle. Any announcements will be made there. It is the student’s
responsibility to check Moodle to keep up with the course.

Masks and Vaccine: Masks are required while in the classroom. If you do not have a mask on, you
will not be permitted to sit for lecture and will have to leave the room. LSU strongly encourages all
students, faculty and staff to get vaccinated for COVID-19. Visit www.lsu.edu/roadmap/vaccines/ to
learn how to get vaccinated on campus. Vaccination helps keep our campus community safe, helps
protect those among us who are most vulnerable to COVID-19, and is our path back to more normal
operations and the full college experience that our students deserve.

Course Requirements: Students will be expected to complete reading assignments, problem sets, 3
exams, and a cumulative final.

Readings: Students will be required to read the assigned readings BEFORE lecture. The textbook
chapters that will be covered in order: 1 – 17.

Problems sets: For each chapter covered, you will be required to complete the associated problem set
that is on Moodle. Your answers to these problems must be submitted in Word file format only
through Moodle and will be due two days after I finish the chapter in lecture at 3:00 pm.
• In other words, if I finish a chapter in a Monday lecture, your answers to the problem set
questions for that chapter will be due at 3:00 pm on Wednesday.

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 • If I finish a chapter in a Wednesday lecture, your answers to the problem set questions for that
chapter will be due at 3:00 pm on Friday.
• If we are talking either Wednesday or Friday of Thanksgiving week, alternate due dates will be
announced at that time.
• If we are talking either Wednesday or Friday of dead week (the last week of the course),
alternative (yet to be determined) plans will be announced.

All problems sets are available now on Moodle. However, the due date will not be set until after I finish
a chapter. Once the due date/time passes, no submission will be allowed and a zero will be entered for
the grade. I will drop the lowest problem set grade. Each problem set will be graded on a percent basis
(i.e., out of 100 points). Your average point total on all of the problem sets will be what I count
towards your final grade. The problem sets average will be worth 100 points. (More detail about final
grade calculation is below).

If you miss a problem set due date for a reason covered under PS-22, then a 24 - 48 hour extension will
be granted if documentation is provided and approved. The exact length of the extension will be set by
the instructor and will depend on the situation.

Exams: There will be three exams, each is worth 100 points. The final is cumulative and
comprehensive and is worth 200 points. The Exam dates are in the following table.

Exam # Date/Time Exam

1 Wednesday, September 15
2 Wednesday, October 13
3 Wednesday, November 10
Wednesday, December 8, 7:30 am
Final Exam
– 9:30 am

Exam and Final Exam Policies and Procedures

A missed exam will be given a grade of zero points, unless the instructor is notified prior to the exam
and the excuse is a valid, fully documented one and one which is officially approved. (The definition of
“officially” approved can be found in LSU policy statement PS-22.) Documentation needs to be
emailed to the course instructor no later than seven calendar days after the exam date. Once
documentation is received and approved, then make-up day/time will be set by the instructor.

THE FINAL IS MANDATORY!! The date and time of the final is stated above. It is the student’s
responsibility to know LSU rules regarding final exams.

Academic Dishonesty: At this point, my policy on cheating should be explained. Simply put, any form
of academic dishonesty is not tolerated . If I even suspect you of academic dishonesty, I will refer the
entire matter to the Office of the Dean of Students where an official investigation into the alleged
academic dishonesty will begin. For the activities that are considered to be academically dishonest and
the possible sanctions imposed on a student who is found responsible of academic dishonesty, please
refer to the Code of Student Conduct.

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Grade Breakdown:

Assignment Points
Problem Sets Average 100
Exam #1 100
Exam #2 100
Exam #3 100
Final Exam 200
Total 600

Letter Grade Scale:

Point Range Letter Grade
582 – 600 A+
558 – 581 A
540 – 557 A-
522 – 539 B+
498 – 521 B
480 – 497 B-
462 – 479 C+
438 – 461 C
420 – 437 C-
402 – 419 D+
378 – 401 D
360 – 377 D-
0 – 359 F