David Chandler Thomas is a Ph.D. student in George Mason University’s economics program. I had highly recommended him to the program after having been his thesis advisor. (San Jose State University, where he earned his Masters’ degree had asked me to do so.)
David reported the following story.
Conversation with one of my Environmental Economics students at the final exam regarding the two large plates of cookies I made for the students.
Student: Are these cookies a common pool resource?
Me: I suppose.
Student: In that case there is about to be a tragedy of the commons.
Me: This class has certain social norms.
Student: I will not see them again so I don’t care about social norms.
Me: You forget that I have not graded your exam yet and I assure you that sequential game theory will apply.
READER COMMENTS
Musca
Dec 16 2013 at 10:49am
“First, class, assume two plates of cookies…”
John B.
Dec 16 2013 at 11:11am
Of course the real game the student is playing is “See, Professor, I learned how to understand situations as games describable in economics jargon”. In other words, actually eating too many cookies is a bad move, but observing that eating too many cookies is a “tragedy of the commons” is a good move.
Karnak
Dec 16 2013 at 11:54am
Student: How about the sequential game theory of a capricious grading complaint?
Sinclair Davidson
Dec 16 2013 at 6:12pm
So you grade your students on criteria other than academic merit?
Jacob A. Geller
Dec 20 2013 at 11:36pm
@Sinclar Davisdson, touché, touché…
David’s threat is non-credible. Student can eat all the cookies he likes without consequence, unless he fears a Quivering Hand outcome… 😉
Michael Tontchev
Dec 22 2013 at 1:39am
He could use social ostracism to make a point to an arrogant student…
Comments are closed.