Research Lecture notes Discussions Conference Mini-courses
Mini-course on the dynamics of social norms
1 & 4 December 2025
Seminar Room G, Manor Road Building, Oxford
Taught by Peyton Young (Oxford)
How do norms of behavior emerge, how are they maintained, and how do they change? This course provides an introduction to this topic using the framework of evolutionary game theory. Peyton will develop the elements of the theory and then sketch how it can be applied to empirical cases. Theoretical details and proofs will be kept to a minimum in order to highlight the qualitative insights that the approach provides. The course is based on a forthcoming book, The Dynamics of Social Norms (Oxford University Press 2026).
Schedule:
| Monday |
1 December |
15:00–16:30 |
lecture 1 of 2 |
| Thursday |
4 December |
13:30–15:00 (+discussion afterwards) |
lecture 2 of 2 |
Mini-course on potential games and higher-order beliefs
5–6 November 2025
Skills Lab, Manor Road Building, Oxford
Taught by Stephen Morris (MIT)
This mini-course covers the role of higher-order beliefs in potential games.
Schedule:
| Wednesday |
5 November |
16:15–17:45 |
lecture 1 of 2 |
slides |
| Thursday |
6 November |
16:15–17:45 |
lecture 2 of 2 |
slides |
Mini-course on the persuasion duality
15–16 October 2025
Skills Lab, Manor Road Building, Oxford
Taught by Anton Kolotilin (U New South Wales)
This mini-course covers the most important tool / perspective for solving Bayesian-persuasion problems: the persuasion duality.
Slides
Schedule:
| Wednesday |
15 October |
14:15–15:45 |
lecture 1 of 2 |
| Thursday |
16 October |
16:15–17:45 |
lecture 2 of 2 |
More Anton:
| Friday |
17 October |
10:00–12:30 |
1-on-1 meetings |
Old Lodge Meeting Room, Nuffield |
| Friday |
17 October |
14:15–15:30 |
seminar |
Seminar Room G, Manor Road Building |
| Friday |
17 October |
16:00–18:00 |
1-on-1 meetings |
2133, Manor Road Building |
Mini-course on reputational bargaining
12–14 November 2024
AB 2.1 (above the Lodge), St Catherine's College, Oxford
Taught by Jack Fanning (Brown)
This mini-course offers a graduate-level introduction to reputational bargaining.
Slides
Schedule:
| Tuesday |
12 November |
9:15–10:45 |
lecture 1 of 3 |
| Wednesday |
13 November |
9:15–10:45 |
lecture 2 of 3 |
| Thursday |
14 November |
9:15–10:45 |
lecture 3 of 3 |
More Jack:
| Friday |
6 December |
10:00–12:30 |
1-on-1 meetings |
Brock Room, Nuffield |
| Friday |
6 December |
14:15–15:30 |
seminar |
Seminar Room G, Manor Road Building |
| Friday |
6 December |
16:00–18:00 |
1-on-1 meetings |
2120, Manor Road Building |
Mini-course on relational contracts and related topics
13–17 May 2024
Seminar Room A / Skills Lab, Manor Road Building, Oxford
Taught by Joel Watson (UCSD)
This mini-course offers a graduate-level introduction to relational contracts and related topics.
Tentative syllabus
13 May:
Introduction to contracts and relational contracting;
Overview of some models and ideas in the literature.
14 May:
Modeling production and external enforcement;
Recursive methods for analysis of repeated games.
15 May:
Settings with trivial external enforcement;
Inactive contracting;
Active contracting.
16 May:
Settings with nontrivial external enforcement, active contracting;
Further topic 1.
17 May:
Further topic 2.
Possible further topics: matching and relational contracting; shocks and fragility; asymmetric information; multilateral relational contracts; coalitions.
Readings: A good starting point is this issue of JITE (we will sample some of the papers) and this AR article.
Schedule:
More Joel:
| Friday |
3 May |
10:00–12:30 |
1-on-1 meetings |
JCR, Nuffield |
| Friday |
3 May |
14:15–15:30 |
seminar |
Seminar Room G, Manor Road Building |
| Friday |
3 May |
16:00–18:00 |
1-on-1 meetings |
2120, Manor Road Building |
Mini-course on repeated games and reputations
4–7 March 2024
Skills Lab, Manor Road Building, Oxford
Taught by Harry Pei (Northwestern)
This mini-course offers a graduate-level introduction to repeated games and reputations.
Schedule:
More Harry:
| Friday |
8 March |
10:00–12:30 |
1-on-1 meetings |
JCR, Nuffield |
| Friday |
8 March |
14:15–15:30 |
seminar |
Seminar Room G, Manor Road Building |
| Friday |
8 March |
16:00–18:00 |
1-on-1 meetings |
2120, Manor Road Building |
Mini-course on dynamic mechanism design
8–11 May 2023
Seminar Room G, Manor Road Building, Oxford
Taught by Rohit Lamba (Penn State)
This mini-course offers a graduate-level introduction to dynamic mechanism design.
Tentative syllabus
Schedule:
Participants:
Dağhan Carlos Akkar, Elizabeth Baldwin, Yayun Chen, Péter Eső, Brooklyn Han, Chris Hyland, Ian Jewitt, Hao Jiang, Sanjari Kalantri, Stefania Merone, Meg Meyer, Inés Moreno de Barreda, Paula Onuchic, Matthew Oulton, Aleksei Parakhonyak, Manos Perdikakis, Ludvig Sinander, Ahmed Tohamy, Hubert Wu
More Rohit:
| Tuesday |
9 May |
14:00–17:30 |
one-on-one meetings
| JCR, Nuffield |
| Thursday |
11 May |
13:00–14:00 |
Rohit presenting in Departmental seminar |
Seminar Room A, Manor Road Building |