A student's guide to understanding tech policy

I work with a group of 9 students, all very talented, learning economics or finance. I have been thinking about what to teach them and what they need to know about public policy. Here is a syllabus of sorts that I have put together to get everyone up to speed on the topics they are currently researching. It is still a draft but I thought everyone could use it.

Knowledge and its limits.

The seen and the unseen

Dissoi Logoi is a rhetorical exercise of unknown authorship, most likely dating to just after the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC) based on comments within the exercise’s text. It starts on page 2 in the attached PDF.

The market is a process not a product

“Order Defined in the Process of its Emergence” James Buchanan

The limits of knowledge in machine learning

“A Few Useful Things to Know about Machine Learning” by Pedro Domingos (2012) alternate version
“Data mining fool’s gold” by Gary Smith

Discounting and time

“Sustainability: An Economist’s Perspective” by Robort Solow
“On hyperbolic discounting and uncertain hazard rates”
“Searching for Safety”

Information and firms

“Designing organizations for an information-rich world” by Herbert Simon (1971)

Some basics of tech

Economics of AI

The New Business of AI (and How It’s Different From Traditional Software) by Martin Casado and Matt Bornstein
“Taming the Tail: Adventures in Improving AI Economics” by Martin Casado and Matt Bornstein

Robots and workers

“Are Workers Losing to Robots?” By Sylvain Leduc and Zheng Liu
“Measuring the Gig Economy: Current Knowledge and Open Issues” by Katharine G. Abraham, John C. Haltiwanger, Kristin Sandusky & James R. Spletzer

Zero priced goods

“The Specialness of Zero” by Joshua Gans (2020)
“The Economics of Information” (1961) by George J. Stigler

Platform economics

“The Economics of Two-Sided Markets” Marc Rysman (2009)
“Controllability of complex networks” by Yang-Yu Liu, Jean-Jacques Slotine & Albert-László Barabási (2011)-