1/ Week 30: The theory paper(s) in focus this week are KMR 93 & Young 93, which provided a remarkably elegant evolutionary perspective to equilibrium selection in games. If games have multiple equilibria, which is more "reasonable", if at all? A deep problem in game theory.
2/ Just when you think you've understood all that Nash brought to game theory, he surprises you. This from his PhD thesis (1950), where he conceptualizes early on, how players could arrive at playing the (well, Nash) equilibrium: a population and an empirical perspective!

1/ Week 28: Theory paper in focus this week is the seminal article by Anthony Atkinson and @JosephEStiglitz that is now famously referred to as the "zero commodity/capital taxation" benchmark in public economics. It has led to much technical & policy debates. Let's find out. 2/ Policy question: Should we tax capital or specific goods (like luxury items), what they call indirect taxation, to enhance equity? Or can an income tax, what they call direct taxation, alone achieve our redistribution goals? Atkinson & Stiglitz offered a surprising answer.

1/ Week 26: After a hiatus, the theory paper of the week is back with a beautiful classic that spawned a huge literature across fields: Temporal Resolution of Uncertainty and Dynamic Choice (1978) by Kreps and Porteus in @ecmaEditors. Let's start with a thought experiment: 🧵 2/ Imagine a coin flip decides payoffs next year: either (5 now, 10 later) or (5 now, 0). If the flip is revealed today or in a year, final outcomes are the same. Yet many people prefer the earlier resolution – they dislike waiting for uncertainty.

Week 9: The theory paper in focus this week is the seminal paper on the theory of the firm by Grossman and Hart published in the JPE in 1986. The voyage starts with a remarkable observation by Coase: Why does a firm exist or differently why is the entire economy not a firm? Coase pointed out existence of the firm as anomaly in the formidable theories of the market---why not let prices do everything? Why are some activities directed by market forces & others by firms? economist.com/schools-brief/…

Week 7: The theory paper in focus this week is "Kidney Exchange" by Roth, @tyfn_sonmez & @muunver. Undoubtedly, it is one of the most influential (in terms of research in economics) and impactful (in terms of goodness in society) papers of 21st century (micro)economics. I remember while getting my first driver's license (age 18) in Delhi, a question on willingness to donate organs upon death. Paa explained to me how even the living often donate organs such as kidneys to their loved ones. What if they want to but can't, medically speaking?

0/ Re-upping with additions and updated links---
A holiday economic theory reading list. Some of my favorite pieces on theory that can be read with minimal sweat, but with the maximal intellectual reward. In no particular order:

https://twitter.com/rohlamba/status/1340196262109392896

1/ Myerson 1999. "Nash equilibrium & history of economic theory." JEL. Written with characteristic Myersonian elegance. "how a few short papers by a young mathematician achieved one of the great watershed breakthroughs in the history of social science."
home.uchicago.edu/rmyerson/resea…

India has just recorded an impressive 8.2 percent growth rate for the financial year. Interpreting GDP numbers correctly is important, otherwise we can prescribe misdirected policies. What is behind the headline number? Short 🧵 GDP = GVA + taxes - subsidies. Over last few quarters GVA growth has gone down and GDP is recording a higher number because subsidies this year have decreased 23 percent year on year. GVA is at 7.2 for the financial year. Eventually GDP & GVA tend to converge.

Are you teaching graduate economic theory semester? Here is a wonderful paper by @homoludio to teach in your class.

In many markets, a two-sided centralized platform, and decentralized bilateral trades thrive simultaneously. What is a good theory for such markets? Buckle up... Regulators often worry about the monopolization of markets by profit-maximizing marketplaces (think Uber, Airbnb, Amazon) and their welfare impacts.

In mechanism design, we tend to assume that all trade takes place within the mechanism [with notable exceptions, of course].

1/ Inverse Selection, new paper with @MarkusEconomist and Carlos Segura-Rodriguez.

With the advent of Big Data, AI and Machine Learning, should we think about standard screening models, eg. used for insurance or credit markets, differently?

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf… 2/ Most models in information economics assume that customers have an informational advantage. Hence, the principal, e.g. the insurance company, faces an adverse selection problem, which it tries to mitigate by offering a menu of screening contracts to potential customers.

0/ A holiday economic theory reading list. Some of my favorite pieces on theory that can be read with minimal sweat, but with the maximal intellectual reward. In no particular order: 1/ Myerson 1999. "Nash equilibrium & history of economic theory." JEL. Written with characteristic Myersonian elegance. "how a few short papers by a young mathematician achieved one of the great watershed breakthroughs in the history of social science."
aeaweb.org/articles?id=10…