Conversation

Something I noticed: the AGT curriculum for computer scientists seems to basically teach auctions, single-parameter mechanism design, etc., and basically skips utility + demand theory, general equilibrium, and 2x2 game theory as taught in econ PhD's
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Illustrates in a sense that, utility, GE, even to some extent 2x2 games and PBE stuff, aren't REALLY that strict prereqs for understanding auctions + mech design. Also, as a result AGT 1st yr PhDs can do like, econ 2nd/3rd yr PhD level mech design/auction theory
Just bc, you get to the frontier faster when not spending time on GE and such This approach probably makes no sense for designing an economics 1st year - utility theory and GE is too important for applied econ fields and modelling
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But until now I hadn't really appreciated the extent to which the utility/GE part of econ, and the auctions + mech design piece, are pretty much two separate pieces with only weak dependencies on each other