Global Arc

This course is an introduction to the history, architecture, literary, and material culture of the high Qing period in China under the Qianlong Emperor (reigned 1735-1796), conducted through the lens of video game development and world building. In this class, students will leverage historical maps, archival material, and secondary scholarship to build a representation of Beijing in the early Qianlong period. At the same time, the class will reflect on games as a serious avenue for historical learning and preservation in a time when the physical traces of historical Beijing are rapidly being lost.

This course explores a diverse selection of Chinese texts from the distant past to the present century. We ask: how do antiquity and modernity mirror and construct one another? We will analyze and compare texts and cultural artifacts across literature, intellectual history, cinema, and visual arts, positioning China within various frameworks of global antiquities and comparative modernities. Students will be encouraged to consider how the entwined imaginations of antiquity and modernity play a role in shaping their identities in contemporary society.

The world of sports offers a broad laboratory to study many topics in microeconomics, while providing uniquely rich data on decisions, performance, and compensation. We will use theoretical and empirical tools to study topics such as behavioral biases in decision making, strategic behavior in games and tournaments, operation and efficiency of betting markets, salary determination, the value of diversity, evidence and implications of discrimination, the industrial organization of professional and collegiate leagues, and public policy issues concerning public infrastructure and exemptions from antitrust laws.

The senior thesis (498-499) is a year-long project in which students complete a substantial piece of research and scholarship under the supervision and advisement of a Princeton faculty member. While a year-long thesis is due in the student's final semester of study, the work requires sustained investment and attention throughout the academic year.

The senior thesis (498-499) is a year-long project in which students complete a substantial piece of research and scholarship under the supervision and advisement of a Princeton faculty member. While a year-long thesis is due in the student's final semester of study, the work requires sustained investment and attention throughout the academic year.

This course covers theoretical and practical aspects of alternative investments, examples of which include hedge fund, venture capital, private equity, and real estate investments. These forms of investments play an increasingly important role in U.S. capital markets, and this course provides students with the tools necessary to understand the role of these alternative investments and how to integrate them when constructing optimal wealth portfolios.

This is an advanced course on microeconomic theory, with a particular focus on mechanism design and contract theory. We explore models of economies with asymmetric information arising from agents' private information or unobservable actions. We will examine the performance of various economic institutions, as well as the optimal design of mechanisms and contracts. Topics include price discrimination, auctions, public goods, bilateral trade, voting, and more.

Why do countries trade goods and services with one another, why does it matter, and what can they do about it? This course will cover three main topics: First, we will study theories of why countries trade. Second, we will study the impacts of trade on aggregate welfare and redistribution both within and across countries. Third, we will study the rationales for trade policy ranging from protectionism to geopolitics. Prerequisites: ECO 300, ECO 310, or SPI 304.

The course introduces machine learning techniques in quantitative finance with applications to structured and unstructured data. Topics include parametric and non-parametric regression, supervised learning, and selected methods from NLP and image recognition. Covered methods are regularized linear models (LASSO family), dimension reduction, ensemble methods, regression trees, neural networks/deep learning, classification, clustering, and text analysis, with examples drawn from financial models.

Junior Independent Work requires students to complete a substantial piece of research and scholarship under the supervision and advisement of a Princeton faculty member. The work requires sustained investment and attention throughout the semester. See below for details on works-in-progress submissions and due dates.