Assignments

This page describes each graded component for the semester. Most of your grade is earned in class — attendance, Q&A panels, simulations, quizzes, and the midterm. The take-home portion is three short empirical homeworks. Details for each homework live on its own page; check the due dates carefully.

Grade at a glance

The course is worth 300 points total, with 80% earned in class.

Component Points How it works
Attendance 20 1 pt per check-in (cap at 20)
Q&A panel 45 Rubric-scored when you are drawn to the panel
Q&A audience 30 2 pts per question asked (cap at 30)
Simulations 25 Play + reflection, best 5 of 7
Quizzes 60 Best 5 of 6, in-class, auto-graded
Midterm 60 One in-class exam
Empirical homework 60 Best 2 of 3, 30 pts each

Every in-class component has more opportunities than you need for full credit, so an occasional absence or off day will not sink your grade. The syllabus has the complete policy.

Empirical homework

Three homeworks, 30 points each, and only your best two count — so one can be dropped. Each is due by midnight on its Friday deadline. Late homeworks lose 2% per day.

These are empirical only. The theory for each module is assessed in class, through quizzes and the midterm. The homeworks are where you work with real health care data.

You are required to use an AI coding assistant — GitHub Copilot is free with your Emory GitHub account, or use the tool of your choice. Let it write the R or Python. The mechanical coding is assumed to be free now, which is exactly why these assignments ask for genuine data work rather than the pre-cleaned, Excel-friendly exercises of past years. Your job is not to produce code. Your job is to direct the tool, check what it returns, and interpret it as a health economist. The AI will frequently hand you a confident, clean, and wrong answer, and catching that is the point of the assignment.

Submit a rendered notebook (Quarto, R Markdown, or Jupyter) containing your code, its output, and your written answers. Each part is worth 3 points:

  • 3 points: correct, with sound economic reasoning
  • 2 points: close, minor error or thin reasoning
  • 1 point: attempted but the economic judgment is missing or wrong
  • 0 points: no work, or the unexamined AI output pasted in

Somewhere in each notebook you must include a verification note: one specific point where the AI’s first output was wrong, incomplete, or misleading, and an explanation in economic terms of how you knew. “It ran without errors” does not count.

Quizzes

Six short quizzes over the semester, best five count (one is dropped). They are timed, taken in class, and auto-graded through our course platform. Quizzes carry the lighter theory for each module — definitions and one-step applications — so keeping up with the readings and slides is enough to do well.

Midterm

One in-class exam worth 60 points, covering the heavier theory and derivations. This is the place to show your work and earn partial credit. There is no final exam. Documented absences can be made up; otherwise the midterm has no built-in slack, so plan for the date on the schedule.

In-class participation

Attendance, Q&A panels, Q&A audience questions, and simulations together make up 120 points and are all handled in class through our course platform.

  • Attendance — check in at the start of class for 1 point, up to 20.
  • Q&A panels — on discussion days a few students are drawn at random to a panel and scored on a short rubric for how well their contribution draws on the assigned material.
  • Q&A audience — ask a question through the hand-raise queue for 2 points, up to 30 over the semester.
  • Simulations — play the in-class simulation and submit a short reflection on your own decisions; the best five of seven count.

The mechanics of each are explained in class and in the syllabus.