At this point, all students in the class have been assigned to project teams. It would be good now for each team to identify the project they want to work on. After tentatively deciding that, please contact me by email so I can agree with your plans or make some modifications that I think will improve your project.
Friday, October 9, 2015
Overview of Background Resources
This is a quick version of what I did in class a week ago Wednesday after assigning the students who were present to Project teams. This video is mainly for those students who weren't present, but might also be useful to those who were there.
At this point, all students in the class have been assigned to project teams. It would be good now for each team to identify the project they want to work on. After tentatively deciding that, please contact me by email so I can agree with your plans or make some modifications that I think will improve your project.
At this point, all students in the class have been assigned to project teams. It would be good now for each team to identify the project they want to work on. After tentatively deciding that, please contact me by email so I can agree with your plans or make some modifications that I think will improve your project.
Wednesday, October 7, 2015
No blog post this weekend/Graded exams returned in class on Monday.
Because I have exams to grade there is no blog post due this weekend. It gives you some time when you can meet with your teammate and get going on your project. Please let me know when you have an idea/topic for that. I want to give the Okay on your projects and possibly tweak what you intend to do, to assure that it relevant to what the class is about.
In class on Monday I will return the graded exams. We will also do a brief review of the exam, before starting in on our next topic. Interesting your preparation before the exam offers some good real-world evidence about the topic, so we will discuss that too.
In class on Monday I will return the graded exams. We will also do a brief review of the exam, before starting in on our next topic. Interesting your preparation before the exam offers some good real-world evidence about the topic, so we will discuss that too.
Excel Homework Due Tuesday 10/13 at 11 PM
This is the homework on the Math of Risk and Risk Preference. While you might be able to grind through it without viewing the content in the previous post, my expectation is that you will have done so. It will greatly increase your understanding of what is going on.
Also, if you are an eager beaver in the crowd and do the homework before class next Monday (I applaud the eager beavers in the class) note that when you get to line 86 of the spreadsheet it says we have covered these ideas in class already. We should get to those ideas on Monday, if only briefly.
Also, if you are an eager beaver in the crowd and do the homework before class next Monday (I applaud the eager beavers in the class) note that when you get to line 86 of the spreadsheet it says we have covered these ideas in class already. We should get to those ideas on Monday, if only briefly.
Please look at this before you start the next Excel homeowrk
Each of these should be reviewed before doing the next Excel homework, which assumes that such a review has been performed. They should be familiar already, based on what you've been exposed to in Econ 202 and 203. There may be some new stuff on risk preference. I'd be curious to learn what is old hat and what is new for you. Note that there is a bit of overlap between each of these. Nonetheless, I strongly encourage you to review them all, so you have a firm understanding of the fundamentals. The second one emphasizes and algebraic approach. The third, a graphical approach. You should be familiar with both.
Notes on the Math and Philosophy of Probability (This is a pdf file.)
Increasing Risk and Risk Aversion (This a video in YouTube. You can find a link to the PowerPoint file on which it is based in the description of the video.)
Expected Utility and Jensen's Inequality (This a video in YouTube. You can find a link to the PowerPoint file on which it is based in the description of the video.)
You should be able to get through all of this in under 45 minutes. Of course, the less familiar it is to you, the longer it will take to get a good understanding.
Notes on the Math and Philosophy of Probability (This is a pdf file.)
Increasing Risk and Risk Aversion (This a video in YouTube. You can find a link to the PowerPoint file on which it is based in the description of the video.)
Expected Utility and Jensen's Inequality (This a video in YouTube. You can find a link to the PowerPoint file on which it is based in the description of the video.)
You should be able to get through all of this in under 45 minutes. Of course, the less familiar it is to you, the longer it will take to get a good understanding.
Tuesday, October 6, 2015
Student Questions About The Coming Midterm
Student questions about the exam should be posted here. That is where I will answer them. There already are some questions and answers posted.
Friday, October 2, 2015
Aarrgghh!!!
I just received the email below from Google. I believe our Upcoming Course Items in the left sidebar of the class site relies on this XML feed. So it will stop working soon before the Thanksgiving break. As there is nothing I can do about it, do note that there is a full class calendar on one of the Tabbed pages. You will have to use that instead. It is a little less convenient. I regret that but its the best we can do under the circumstances.
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From: “The Google Calendar Team“
Reply-To: “The Google Calendar Team“
Date: Friday, October 2, 2015 at 2:51 PM
To: Lanny Arvan
Subject: Important announcement about XML feeds in Google Calendar
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Important announcement about XML feeds in Google Calendar
Because of low usage, and in an effort to streamline our services, from 18 November 2015, XML feeds will no longer be available in Google Calendar. You're getting this message because you're currently viewing or sharing a link to one or more of your calendars using an XML feed.
We apologise for any inconvenience caused. Google Calendar will continue to support three ways of viewing your calendars in other applications or on websites. You can:
Finally, you can always view and manage your calendars using the Google Calendar app for Android, iPhone or on the web.
- The Calendar team
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© 2015 Google Inc. 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA
You have received this mandatory email service announcement to update you about important changes to your Calendar product or account.
Thursday, October 1, 2015
About the Class Project - Reasons
There are two possible types of class project. One is a review of a scholarly paper written by professional economists on a topic that is relevant to the class. The other is a case study, again on a topic that is relevant to the class. These alternatives do offer teams a choice as to the type of project they will do.
Each type of project has a goal associated with it and these goals are quite distinct. If we did this course over both the fall and the spring then perhaps each team would do both types of project. Given our current circumstance, one project is all we can squeeze in.
* * * * *
The review of a scholarly paper is meant to give students some experience with how academic economists communicate their research ideas with other economists. I suspect most if not every student in the class has never read such a scholarly paper, although most of the students in the class are economics majors. In graduate school for PhD students, the bulk of what students read are such papers, at least after they have finished the first year set of core courses. The thought here is that undergraduates should have a little bit of this sort of experience as well.
There are two barriers of skill that I hope we can avoid via selection of the papers that are candidates for review. The first is math modeling. The second is econometric analysis of the data and the results of the various hypothesis testing done in the paper. I suggest that students don't read those sort of papers. They likely will find them impenetrable. Not that long ago I tried to read a paper I had written in the late 1980s. Some of the argument was over my head now - and I was the author of the piece!
This leaves papers that are without equations and multiple regression results but where the writing is for economists, not generalists. This may still be difficult to penetrate, but based on the extra credit projects students did for the class last year, I believe it is possible with some effort. One reason for doing this with another student this time around is that the two of you can hash out what the paper is saying.
Understanding the issues in the paper is indicated by being able to translate the arguments to a generalist. The purpose of your review is to provide such a translation.
* * * * *
Our course is taught in a fairly theoretical manner. While I do try to include examples from when I was an administrator, there is the issue of whether those carry over outside of higher education into the business world that many of you will enter.
Students want to learn practical stuff. I've known that for some time and have written a bit on it about ten years ago. The case study project is meant to appeal to this student motivation. The idea is to find a rather rich real world example, explore its features, and then generalize the lessons learned from the example. Sometimes cases suggest hypotheses that others have not yet articulated. Other times cases offer evidence in support of a hypothesis that is widely regarded as possible. (Note - it is very hard to confirm an economic hypothesis with the same sort of precision as confirming an astronomy hypothesis, such as the one about the earth revolves around the sun. The evidence we have for an economic hypothesis may be insufficient to "prove" the hypothesis is true. The absence of controlled experiments in economics means many hypotheses can't really be tested.)
For the case study an additional aspect of the project is to tie the case to subject matter of our class. In that sense the case study is like the blog posts. The difference is that for the blog posts you are using your own prior experience. With the case study you are using experience from the business world that you've read about.
As I said in class yesterday, I've not taught with case studies in an econ class before. The reason, apart from never being trained in the case method, is that I've been unsure whether students can make the connections between the case and the course subject matter. I said yesterday that these projects are an experiment. One aspect of the experiment is to see whether students can make the right sort of connections between the case and course content.
* * * * *
There is one other reason for the projects that is worth mentioning here. While I try to teach the class where a foundation is built early and then we build on that later, there is no doubt that the course has elements of going from one topic to the next, with none covered in much depth. For example, we could make the entire course focus on transfer pricing and really understand transfer pricing as a consequence. As it is we have one Excel homework that is partially on it and likewise one blog post. So the topic is covered, but not so deeply. The project is meant to give you some experience in learning an economics idea with greater depth. How you go about doing the project will determine whether that purpose is met.
Each type of project has a goal associated with it and these goals are quite distinct. If we did this course over both the fall and the spring then perhaps each team would do both types of project. Given our current circumstance, one project is all we can squeeze in.
* * * * *
The review of a scholarly paper is meant to give students some experience with how academic economists communicate their research ideas with other economists. I suspect most if not every student in the class has never read such a scholarly paper, although most of the students in the class are economics majors. In graduate school for PhD students, the bulk of what students read are such papers, at least after they have finished the first year set of core courses. The thought here is that undergraduates should have a little bit of this sort of experience as well.
There are two barriers of skill that I hope we can avoid via selection of the papers that are candidates for review. The first is math modeling. The second is econometric analysis of the data and the results of the various hypothesis testing done in the paper. I suggest that students don't read those sort of papers. They likely will find them impenetrable. Not that long ago I tried to read a paper I had written in the late 1980s. Some of the argument was over my head now - and I was the author of the piece!
This leaves papers that are without equations and multiple regression results but where the writing is for economists, not generalists. This may still be difficult to penetrate, but based on the extra credit projects students did for the class last year, I believe it is possible with some effort. One reason for doing this with another student this time around is that the two of you can hash out what the paper is saying.
Understanding the issues in the paper is indicated by being able to translate the arguments to a generalist. The purpose of your review is to provide such a translation.
* * * * *
Our course is taught in a fairly theoretical manner. While I do try to include examples from when I was an administrator, there is the issue of whether those carry over outside of higher education into the business world that many of you will enter.
Students want to learn practical stuff. I've known that for some time and have written a bit on it about ten years ago. The case study project is meant to appeal to this student motivation. The idea is to find a rather rich real world example, explore its features, and then generalize the lessons learned from the example. Sometimes cases suggest hypotheses that others have not yet articulated. Other times cases offer evidence in support of a hypothesis that is widely regarded as possible. (Note - it is very hard to confirm an economic hypothesis with the same sort of precision as confirming an astronomy hypothesis, such as the one about the earth revolves around the sun. The evidence we have for an economic hypothesis may be insufficient to "prove" the hypothesis is true. The absence of controlled experiments in economics means many hypotheses can't really be tested.)
For the case study an additional aspect of the project is to tie the case to subject matter of our class. In that sense the case study is like the blog posts. The difference is that for the blog posts you are using your own prior experience. With the case study you are using experience from the business world that you've read about.
As I said in class yesterday, I've not taught with case studies in an econ class before. The reason, apart from never being trained in the case method, is that I've been unsure whether students can make the connections between the case and the course subject matter. I said yesterday that these projects are an experiment. One aspect of the experiment is to see whether students can make the right sort of connections between the case and course content.
* * * * *
There is one other reason for the projects that is worth mentioning here. While I try to teach the class where a foundation is built early and then we build on that later, there is no doubt that the course has elements of going from one topic to the next, with none covered in much depth. For example, we could make the entire course focus on transfer pricing and really understand transfer pricing as a consequence. As it is we have one Excel homework that is partially on it and likewise one blog post. So the topic is covered, but not so deeply. The project is meant to give you some experience in learning an economics idea with greater depth. How you go about doing the project will determine whether that purpose is met.
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