[W4209] Game Theory and Political Theory

This is an excellent class that covers a lot of material: you will start with toy models for a fifth-grader and end up reading original research papers in the field with full understanding. However, the class requires either a mathematical backgroud that goes well beyong the official prerequisite, or a substantial amount of hard work. Many people in the class had neither of the two.

Thus, when one is reading people's assessments of the course one should keep in mind that not all students in the class were really in a position to adequately assess prof. Ting's competency. I was one of the students who found problem sets relatively easy (I worked alone on all of them) and for all I can tell, prof. Ting is at the top of his game. Not once did he put me in position to reflect on his mastery of the course material and I normally don't need much to start suspecting that one is not fully competent.

In addition, he is a just an excellent instructor, again, if you you are sufficiently prepared for the class. If you know little math and hardly ever open the textbook he may be hard to comprehend. On the other hand, I personally had only one math class before (and I have taken quite a few math classes over the years) in which the lectures were at the same time so informative, so engaging and so easy to follow. Even the hardest of proofs were given with great clarity and precision.

The materail covered in class is very interesting and a must-know for every serious social scientist. Prof. Ting does a great job of integrating across various models and tying it up with actual research questions in political science.

I was really looking forward to this class. When I came to class the first day, there were about 45-50 people there. Within 2 lectures, the class size was cut in half. Why? I'm not sure. Maybe they noticed something I didn't notice until later on. Game theory is extremely interesting, and if taught by the right teacher, it will be even more interesting. However, Prof. Ting is not that teacher. His grasp of Game Theory seems mediocre at best. If you are willing to spend a good amount of time on your own just reading the textbook, then you might still enjoy it. But if you think you are going to come to lecture, take notes, and do well on the problem sets, think again.

This is a hard course, especially the first half. Grad level text for the Social Choice Theory half of the course (political theory) with heavy math and logic. Only one TA who is burned out and isnt really interested nor able to teach and explain. However, the second half of the course is much, much better. Game Theory was much more exciting and better taught. The saving grace of this class for undergrads is that it is a SIPA course and hence is curved for SIPA (with an A- as the mean most likely). Epstein himself is a very capable teacher (everything makes sense in class) and a nice understanding guy. Worthwhile if you're interested in Game Theory.