Alessandra Casella

This class is extremely difficult. Professor Casella chose not to formally assign problem sets, explaining that she believed most students would just us AI. As a result, the grading was heavily exam-weighted: the midterm counted for 30%, the final for 60%, and mandatory weekly recitations for 10%. In theory, recitations were meant to be used to work through problem sets with the TA, but in practice we rarely made it through much the problem sets each week. The grading structure was also unclear. The midterm average was 52.7%, and on the final, very few students seemed able to finish. The exam was extremely long and involved cumbersome algebra that felt more like a race against the clock than a test of conceptual understanding. After the midterm, it seemed the prof realized students were not consistently doing the problem sets on their own, so they began requiring submission of the psets to the TA for completion (which I guess would factor to our participation grade?). Overall, I would not recommend taking this course unless you absolutely need it.

If a student is not particularly good at math or outspoken, I would highly recommend they do not take this class. The assignments, expectations, and teaching style will be difficult to keep up with. I would definitely not recommend this class, because the teaching style did not care about the students or take into account the possibility that they had other responsibilities and assignments for other courses. You are almost expected to give your full attention and time to this course and professor and if you slack or feel discouraged, you are called out or ignored by the professor. The students themselves were amazing and made the class more fun and enjoyable. 1 Columbia University: Arts & Sciences Spring 2025 Course: POLSGU4762_001_2025_1-POLITICSINTHELAB : POLSGU4762_001_2025_1 - POLITICS IN THE LAB Instructor: Alessandra Casella

Casella's really knowledgable and has a wealth of experience. The only downside to that is that she thinks everyone taking her class is gonna be the next eminence in political economy, when for the most part they're just poli sci kids who happened to take principles in freshman year and are now too far gone down the poli sci-econ major to quit. If you put the work in to understand the concepts and the mathematic principles underpinning the models, it actually does get really cool and interesting. Still recommend even though you're likely taking this because it's required.

Pros: Really interesting subject overall. I learned a lot about policy implementation and the kinds of problems that come up in real-world public policy. The professor is great — super enthusiastic, always happy to answer questions, and clearly loves the topic. Cons: The class is very theoretical. Not many concrete examples or practical applications, which made the material feel a bit heavy and hard to digest at times. This is the part I usually dislike in research-oriented courses, and it was definitely noticeable here. Recitations weren’t great. Part of it is the format since you’re not actually required to do the problem sets beforehand, the sessions end up being very laid-back and more about catching up than working through things in depth.

The class attempted to cover so much material that I genuinely think the only thing it could've been called was "political economy." It vaguely had to do with politics and vaguely had to do with the economy. Casella was clearly incredibly knowledgeable and brimming with passion about the material but seemed to struggle with deciding what she unfortunately had to gloss over for the sake of the course. Her handwriting was almost illegible at times, which got tough when she would write equations with a ton of variables and fly through the math, but she was consummately patient, generous, and encouraging with questions and anything else. I found that I actually needed very little knowledge to prepare for the midterm and final. The questions were intuitive and she set up the context pretty well. If you could work out the math, you were good to go. tbh I loved this class although it was arguably on the difficult side. Best dressed professor I've seen at this school. She is a walking pinterest board. I love her so much.

Casella is by far the best professor I've had at my time at Columbia. Firstly, she is an incredible teacher—of course is she clear and explaining concepts and her theorems, but sitting in her class one actually feels that a transfer of knowledge is taking place. Even though the class was not a seminar—there were around 30 or so students—Casella wants each and every student to fully understand the material. She would constantly pause for questions, and actually wanted students to ask questions to ensure they were pushing their thinking and fully aware of the material. If there was every a question which involved an application of a theorem she wasn’t closely familiar with, she would come back the next class with a clear answer, and invite more questions. Her ability to teach is reflected in how many students would come up to her after class, and attend her office hours. Not only would so many students come to talk with her, many of the questions were questions of curiosity—elicited by her—rather than questions of confusion. She made every student really think, in a way most professors are unable to do so. This also shows Casella’s sheer dedication to her students—she cares about what they think of the material, and considers every question carefully and with respect. Because of this class, I know plan to write a thesis in Economics—something I never even dreamed of doing. She h…

Casella clearly cares about the topic and does a decent job making you care about it as well, which is impressive given that this class seems to be given the shittiest room and the shittiest time slot (Mine was in 7th Floor of Hamilton at 8:40am). However, I have a huge problem with the way you are tested on the material. I guess to describe it, we are rushing to cover the material in class, during which we explore the issues at an intensity level of say, 2 or 3 on scale of 10. In the end we ended up covering only 3 out of the 4 major units. Then, for the problem sets, we are expected to solve problems that are at a level 6 or a 7, and in order to do these, you will have to go to office hours and recitations and spend quite a long time figuring out stuff on your own since there isn't a textbook and you're going by pretty much just lectures, which once again, are rushed. If you're unlucky like me, you will only be able to make one recitation, which occurs after both classes, so you can't get much help. Luckily, despite being frustrating, these are worth only 10% of your grade. Then, for the exams, she suddenly decides to kick your ass and test you at level 9 or 10, except this time you don't have hours and office hours to figure it out, but 75 minutes or 3 hours for the final. You have no way to prep for the difficulty because what you are tested on is different from previous y…

Professor Casella was given the challenge of motivating a class of econ and polisci majors to trudge up to the seventh floor of Hamilton on Monday and Wednesday mornings at 9 to attend lectures involving mathematical proofs. The inherent difficult of this challenge should not be underestimated. As previous reviewers have noted, Casella displays an immense enthusiasm and sense of wonder for many of the topics discussed, and her excitement motivates you to pay attention and try to understand. Not the easiest class in the world, and it would have been helpful to have had better textbooks, but try to keep up with her assigned journal articles (it would help if she posted the electronic resource links to courseworks). The articles tend to be interesting and helpful.

This is an Ivy League class. The material is very interesting (well, except for the silly firm/fishery stuff at the beginning) and is a great example of how economic theories can explain, or rather reflect, real life situations. There's a lot of math, more in class than in the problem sets and exams, that often makes following a tough job. The problem sets are optional, but if you do them and try really hard you get this great feeling of achievement. Professor Casella will often ask you to appreciate how wonderful something is: even if you don't do so expressively, there is a lot of stuff to appreciate in this class and I can recommend it, but only if you are truly interested in the material and aren't afraid of challenges. As for teaching itself, Professor Casella is generally helpful in class although her handwriting can be a pain in the ass to decipher and you will often find yourself asking her or your neighbor what something means. Also, she does a great job of explaining theoretical concepts and their math proofs side by side which is very helpful.

Casella seems like a real person you'd like to know, a super-cheerful person with a family and personality quirks and beloved hobbies (which may or may not involve Nash bargaining games to a disturbing degree). I loved her class; I was sad when we had to miss 15 minutes for a fire drill. You can't help but get excited about the material because she, clearly, loves it just as much as when she first encountered it 25 years ago. The class is hard, and her tests are more like IQ tests than the usual Columbia prompts for you to regurgitate what you've learned from problem sets. But she curves generously. Another issue is that political economy is basically collectivism 101, and this European-born professor is really into centralized power. But you'll forgive her for that, too, because she is just so spirited and fun. TA recitations and office hours are essential. That's where the math starts to make sense.