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.

Simulations

Seven in-class simulations across the semester, best five count (two can be missed). On a simulation day we trade the usual discussion for an interactive, multiplayer game run through the course platform, then debrief what happened. You earn credit by playing and by submitting a short reflection on the decisions you made. As with the quizzes, the spare two mean an occasional absence won’t hurt.

Q&A panels

Most class days are discussion days built around a panel. A few students are drawn at random through the course platform to work through the day’s reading at the front of the room, while everyone else asks questions (the Q&A audience points below). You’re scored on a short four-level rubric for how well your contribution draws on the assigned material — so the payoff is coming with the reading done, not talking the most. You’ll be drawn several times over the semester, and a single off day won’t sink you. The last class flips the format into a reverse panel, where guests put the questions to you, now that you’re the experts.

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 and audience questions round out the in-class points; together with the panels and simulations above, in-class work is 120 points, all handled through our course platform.

  • Attendance — check in at the start of class for 1 point, up to 20.
  • Q&A audience — ask a question through the hand-raise queue for 2 points, up to 30 over the semester.

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