Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Fall, 2008
Wednesday, 2:30-5:30
GR 3.602
Introduction
This seminar is designed to introduce PhD students to the literatures in these two fields,
identifying their similarities and differences. The first half of the course will be primarily
lecture-based, and will provide a broad overview of past research. In the second half of
the course, students will choose a particular area of interest, and develop and present a
more in-depth review of previous research in that area. At the end of the course, students
will produce a paper proposing an original and publishable research topic in the field.
Textbooks
For an overview of experimental bargaining, students can read Chapter 4 by Alvin Roth
in the Handbook of Experimental Economics and sections of Colin Camerer’s Behavioral
Game Theory. For an overview of negotiation, students can read The Mind and Heart of
the Negotiator by Leigh Thompson. We will refer to sections from these readings at the
appropriate place in the course, but students are expected to master the material in these
sources by the end of the course.
Requirements
This course involves a heavy reading load. In the beginning of the course students read
surveys where available and one or two original papers per week, toward the end they
read a series of original research papers (both published and unpublished) related to their
field of interest. At the end of the course, students will produce a paper proposing an
original and publishable research topic in the field
(1) Nine written referee reports (20%): In each of nine classes, students will choose
an original paper to read and to write up. The written reports should be relatively
short 1-2 pages, and should not include a summary of the paper itself. Instead,
students should focus on shortcomings of the paper, and suggest more research
that should be done to nail down or further explore the results presented. These
reports thus should be critical, as though the student were writing to the author,
identifying holes in the paper, and recommending ways to fix them.
(2) Nine presentations of referee reports (10%): In each of the nine classes, students
will present their referee report to the class. This presentation may include a
summary of the paper, as well as the paper’s limitations and suggestions for
addressing them.
(3) Z-Tree assignment (20%): Toward the end of the class each student will be
expected to learn Z-Tree, a computer program which can be customized for
running experiments. Mastering the program should take 1-2 days. Students will
be expected to program a sample bargaining experiment, and demonstrate their
program to the professor (and possibly to the class, if time permits).
(4) Final paper (50%): At the end of the course students will be expected to
write and present a final paper. This paper should be a publishable paper in bargaining or
negotiation, up to but not including the results. The paper should thus include an
introduction / motivation section, a literature review, a section on experimental design
and implementation and (if possible) a link to an appropriate Z-tree program.
Schedule of Classes