PPEL510

041808

This course surveys elements and applications of those parts of formal political theory and economic theory most central to the interdisciplinary area known as PPE, the intersection of philosophy, politics and economics. Specific areas to be studied include: (1) alternative accounts of individual rational choice under certainty, uncertainty and risk, (2) the von Neumann-Morgenstern utility representation theorem for utilities based upon coherent preferences, (3) Pareto optimality and related compensation criteria such as Kaldor-Hicks, (4) the fundamental theorems of welfare economics for an exchange economy, (5) public goods and related provision schemes, (6) social choice and related results on majority voting, spatial voting and the possibility of a coherent social preference, and (7) elements of noncooperative game theory. Students will both encounter some of the mathematics of these formal methods and examine some of the specific problems of philosophy, politics and economics that help to motivate these formal methods.

GRD - Regular Grades A, B, C, D, E

Graduate

PPEL310