Re: Econ Thought For the Day - Something Fun To Do
 

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As an Econ prof, he should have realized that as a rational decision maker, she would NOT have told anyone, even the 5 people. Because she knows that if she tells 5, and they tell 5, and they tell 5, etc, then everyone will know. Therefore, at any given decision point, the rational choice is to NOT tell. So she wouldn't.

Of course, that assumes she passed Game Theory.

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she

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Re: Econ Thought For the Day - Something Fun To Do
 

I don't quite understand though because if he told her and then she started the chain of telling everyone, she could be potentially held responsible for cheating, correct? So she would have an incentive not to tell anyone.

However, what happened was that he gave her an incentive not to come and ask him again.

I had emailed that professor about it and this was his response:

"I did risk it, but: There are 500 students in my class, so the danger, as she acknowledged, was small.

Thanks for writing; and I'm glad you enjoy my "blog".

Daniel S. Hamermesh
Centennial Professor of Economics
University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX 78712-1173 USA"

Re: Econ Thought For the Day - Something Fun To Do
 

[ QUOTE ]
As an Econ prof, he should have realized that as a rational decision maker, she would NOT have told anyone, even the 5 people. Because she knows that if she tells 5, and they tell 5, and they tell 5, etc, then everyone will know. Therefore, at any given decision point, the rational choice is to NOT tell. So she wouldn't.

Of course, that assumes she passed Game Theory.

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This is correct, assuming, like he said, that she passed Game Theory...