390058 SE Economic Literature Seminar (2011S)

The topic of the seminar is : "Different Economic Theories with the Same Formal Structure: Risk, Income Inequality, and Information Structures." We study some selected classical papers from the literature on these three fields, in which standard concepts like "increasing risk", "increasing income inequality" or "increasing information" are introduced and defined. The purpose of this exercise is twofold: first, to understand these concepts; second, - and more importantly - to realize that they are all the same, in the sense that the underlying logical structure is always the same. Since papers in the various fields differ widely in notation and terminology, and usually do not refer to each other, this common structure is not immediately obvious; but once it has been realized, it enables a much deeper understanding of these theories. Results obtained in one area can also easily be transferred to other fields, thus avoiding unnecessary duplication of effort.