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Department of Economics

As of January 15, 2020 COURSE DETAILS Title: ECON 6301 Applied Microeconomic Theory Section: Section 10 (CRN 74458) Semester: Spring 2020 Location: 1776 G St., NW, C-103 Time: Wednesday, 3:30 to 6:00 p.m.  

INSTRUCTOR Name: Dr. Joann M. Weiner Campus Address: Monroe 370, Department of Economics

2115 G St., NW, Washington, DC 20052 E-mail: jmweiner@gwu.edu Tel: (202) 994-6581 Twitter: @DCEcon I’ll use #GWU6301 for messages meant for our class Office hours: Thursday, 3 to 5 p.m. and by appointment GRADUATE ASSISTANTS Name: Mr. Rully Prassetya Email: rprassetya@gwmail.gwu.edu OH: GOV 324 F 4:00 – 6:00 Name: Mr. Taesik Kim Email: taesik@gwmail.gwu.edu OH: GOV 324 M 2:00 - 4:00 The Graduate Assistants will hold a computer lab on Friday from 10-11 in Rome B104 and a discussion section on Friday from 1-2 in Monroe 353. COURSE DESCRIPTION The course covers the principal areas of microeconomic theory: consumer demand, decision-making under uncertainty, production and costs, game theory, product markets (both competitive and imperfectly competitive), factor markets, and market failures. The course emphasizes applying theory to microeconomic issues in the real world. Examples include product pricing, technological change, firm behavior, consumer and producer welfare, social costs of fiscal policies, monopoly and resource allocation. COURSE PREREQUISITES ECON 6300 Mathematical Methods for Economics. Students may enroll concurrently in ECON 6301 and ECON 6300 only with my permission.

 

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TEXTBOOKS Walter Nicholson and Christopher Snyder, Intermediate Microeconomics and Its Application, 12th ed., Cengage Learning, 2015. The text is on reserve at Gelman Library. Carl P. Simon and Lawrence Blume, Mathematics for Economists, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1994; This is the text used in Mathematical Methods for Economics (ECON 6300), I will often refer to the technical material from the advanced Nicholson and Snyder text: Microeconomic Theory. Basic Principles and Extensions, 11th edition, Cengage Learning, 2012. This text overlaps the content of the first text with a mathematical treatment of microeconomics and is a useful reference for the assigned text. LEARNING OUTCOMES After successfully completing this course, students will be able to:

apply microeconomic tools such as constrained optimization, elasticity, and comparative statics to analyze the economic behavior of decision-makers, such as consumers, workers, firms, and government;

evaluate how market structure and government policies affect consumer and producer behavior, economic welfare, and market equilibria;

work as a member of a team while participating in learning activities, such as peer-to-peer evaluations and group homework;

formulate an applied research question, extract relevant knowledge from existing literature, apply micro theory to your question, and identify data needed to analyze your microeconomic issue; and

make an effective oral presentation, incorporate constructive feedback into your work, and conduct a critical review of your fellow students’ research.

AVERAGE MINIMUM AMOUNT OF DIRECT INSTRUCTION AND INDEPENDENT, OUT-OF-CLASS, LEARNING EXPECTED PER WEEK In a 15-week semester, including exam week, for each credit, you should expect to spend a minimum of 100 minutes on independent coursework for every 50 minutes of direct instruction for a minimum total of 2.5 hours per week. A 3-credit course includes 2 ½ hours of direct instruction and a minimum of 5 hours of independent learning, for a total minimum of 7.5 hours per week. As part of your independent work, you should plan to spend 3 to 4 additional hours on each assignment. GRADING

Homework 10% Quizzes (15% each quiz) 30% VoiceThread 10% Comments on voice thread and peer review 10% Draft and final paper 40%

 

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Study groups: To encourage you to share ideas and work until you come up with answers for the problem sets, I’ll divide the class into study groups so that you can work on homework together. Groups that meet in person tend to learn the material and do much better in class than groups that work remotely so I encourage you to try to find a time when everyone can meet (including those who work during the day). I do not distribute solutions to the problem sets. You should meet with the graduate assistant if you would like to review the solutions to the homework. Choose one member in your group to compile your group’s work into a SINGLE document and upload it to Blackboard. I don’t accept photographs of your homework and recommend that you use a program, such as CamScanner, to convert your document to a PDF. To the extent possible, please type your problem sets (LATEX is a good program to learn, but you can also use the equation editor in Word. Keep in mind that it is important to make a good impression with all aspects of your work. For an overview of how to use LaTex, see this website: https://www.overleaf.com/learn/latex/Mathematical_expressions) Homework ---10%

Group --- The weekly problem set includes questions from the text and on the assigned readings that illustrate the week’s economic concept. You can download the readings from JSTOR and find the questions in the folder on Blackboard. To help improve your oral communication skills, I will assign a group to explain the economics behind a current event to class.

Individual --- To help you see “applied microeconomics” in the world, you will pick a short article each week from current events or from a journal that interests you and analyze the microeconomics in the article from an applied economics point of view. You should upload a brief 2 to 3 paragraph note that analyzes the issue and identifies the microeconomic concept that you are analyzing (include a link to the article). You should also specific a basic econometric equation that identifies your independent variable of interest and the main dependent variables that explain changes in the independent variable, e.g., if you read an article explaining wages,you would specify something like the following equation (This equation is the well-known Mincer equation that relates wages to years of schooling and experience):

1 2 Let the X variable stand for all of the other things that help explain wages (these are the variables that you need to control for so that you can measure the impact of schooling and experience controlling for the influence of variables that also affect schooling and experience). Learning to identify your issue of interest and the variables that help explain your variable of interest will help you formulate the idea for your paper.

Don’t worry about how you will measure the variables, e.g., first difference, log, etc., --- that’s a topic for your econometrics/time series class. Also, it may not be easy to identify the dependent and independent variables in your article. Do your best, however, to find these variables. It will help when it comes time to choose your paper topic.

 

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By actively reading the assigned articles, analyzing the applications in the text, finding microeconomic concepts in current events, and specifying a potential regression equation, you’ll not only learn how to do things like choose the appropriate economic theory for your analysis but also, you’ll begin to learn how to think and speak like an applied economist. You will also begin to figure out how to distinguish between correlation and causation among variables. Problem sets and individual applications are due by noon the day before class on the week

after assigned (i.e., our class meets on Wednesday so PSET 1 is due by noon on Tuesday in week 2).

Quizzes --- 30% I will give two quizzes in class. Each quiz is worth 15% of your course grade. VoiceThread (outline and final VT) --- 10%

VT - To help you learn a new technology, you will use VoiceThread for two assignments. For the first VT assignment, you will upload a 2-3 minute discussion of your topic, including 5 PPT slides accompanied by a video of you description the slides, into Blackboard so that you will have an idea of how you look to your audience and gain practice with this type of communication. The first slide should provide the title of your presentation and your name. For the second VT assignment, you will upload your final presentation (10-12 slides) and spend about 8 minutes discussing your slides as if you were presenting to the class. To help you learn how to develop a good presentation, you will be graded on the quality of the slides that illustrate your final paper. Upload your first Voice Thread file in this format: Last name, first name, VT1, title,

e.g., Weiner, Joann, VT1, How taxes affect business investment

Upload your second VT file as Last name, First name, VT 2, title e.g., Weiner, Joann, VT2, How taxes affect multinational investment Uploading files in this manner makes sure that your VT files are in an alphabetical order and that the two VT files are next to each other. Note that you may change the title of your presentation.

Voice Thread comments and peer review --- 10%

Everyone should view at least three of the first VoiceThread assignments and make detailed comments and suggestions for improving the presentation and paper. Students should incorporate these suggestions into their final paper. Everyone should also comment on at least three VT 2 assignments.

 

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Peer review: To teach you how to provide critical comments on each other’s work, you will review the draft paper for two of your classmates. This assignment requires you to comment on the draft paper and to complete the rubric (provided in a separate document). You should meet with your peer to discuss your comments. A good time to meet for most students is immediately before class.

Microeconomics paper --- 40%

Draft paper (5%): To encourage you to get an early start on your paper, you will receive credit for submitting a complete, well-written draft paper. Spending time thinking about your question and finding out what we already know about the topic will help you shape your paper. These steps are essential, and I encourage you to meet with me to discuss your topic well before the due date. Final paper (35%): You will write a short paper on an applied microeconomic issue of your choice. I encourage you to identify a narrow question that you can address in just a few pages, e.g., instead of analyzing how technology affects the demand for workers, you could analyze the specific issue of how a clothing manufacturing company decides to replace workers with automated sewing robots. The applications in the text and those that you find in current events will help you choose your paper topic. A separate document describes the requirements for the paper and provides the grading rubric.

You may use your microeconomics paper as a basis for the paper that you write in your econometrics and/or time series class. Final exam: I don’t give a final exam. Late work: I will reduce your score for work submitted after the due date. Make-up work: I don’t give make-up work or extra credit. If you have an unavoidable

conflict with an assignment, please come see me as soon as possible. NOTE: Although I do not give a final exam, in accordance with university policy, final exams must be given during the final exam period. For details and the complete policy, see: provost.gwu.edu/administration-final-examinations-during-examination-period BLACKBOARD FOLDERS I have created folders on Blackboard where you can find the assignments and upload your work. The folders and their contents are as follows:

 

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VoiceThread – Students upload both VoiceThread assignments here. Problem Sets and questions on readings– Groups submit problem sets here. Individual Student Submissions – Students upload individual work here. Current events, draft paper, literature review, PPT, and final paper.

MATH IN APPLIED MICROECONOMICS Being a good applied micro-economist requires that you master several key techniques. The main techniques include using derivatives to maximize utility and profits or to minimize costs, using the Lagrange multiplier method to find a constrained optimum, use comparative statics to analyze how policy interventions (or other exogenous changes in the market you’re studying) affect equilibrium, using integration to measure consumer surplus, producer surplus and deadweight loss. You will learn mathematical concepts such as elasticity, monotonic transformations as well as the importance of concavity, convexity, homotheticity and homogeneity in microeconomic analysis. You learned the math techniques in ECON 6300 Mathematical Methods for Economics, and I encourage you to reinforce your knowledge of these techniques by regularly using them. You need to master these concepts to interpret much of the economic literature and to understand the limitations of various models. HOW TO SUCCEED IN THIS CLASS, i.e., BECOME AN APPLIED ECONOMIST You’ll do better in this class if you spend time thinking about economics, reading the news and journal articles, and talking with your friends and classmates about interesting ideas than if you work alone and only study the text. The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) is the primary source for top-notch economic research. Subscribe to the Digest to obtain readable summaries of research and use those summaries to find the research behind the summary. http://www.nber.org/digest/ The IGM Forum from the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago is a good place to identify interesting economic issues. The Forum asks a variety of economists for their views on key current issues and allows them to measure the strength of their response. Issues include whether consumers benefit from ride sharing services, whether autonomous vehicles benefit society, if trade barriers are good policy (economists were uniform in their response to this question) and whether taxing digital products is a good idea, and the impact of legalizing betting on sporting events. Hint: You have to write a paper on a microeconomic issue for this class so the IGM is a good place to start looking for ideas! Take a look here: http://www.igmchicago.org/ Here are some good places to obtain solid economic analysis: TaxVox – From the Tax Policy Center at the Urban Institute/Brookings Institution.

http://taxvox.taxpolicycenter.org/ The Tax Foundation

 

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http://taxfoundation.org/blog The Penn Wharton Budget Model http://budgetmodel.wharton.upenn.edu/ The Daily Dish – By former CBO director Douglas Holtz-Eakin at the American Action Forum.

http://americanactionforum.org/daily-dish AEI Today – Daily newsletter from the American Enterprise Institute

http://www.aei.org/ Brookings Institution – Daily newsletter from the Economists at the Brookings Institution

https://www.brookings.edu/program/economic-studies/?type=posts The Cato Institute – a conservative/libertarian look at policy

http://www.cato.org The Mercatus Center at George Mason University – See the conversations with Tyler Cowen

https://www.mercatus.org/ Microeconomic Insights from the London-based Institute of Fiscal Studies

http://microeconomicinsights.org/

Google the name of your favorite economist and you’re likely to find a blog or podcast that provides insightful economic analysis (some of my favorites are Freakonomics, Hidden Brain, Marketplace, Planet Money, and the blogs by Greg Mankiw, Tyler Cowan, etc.). Take a look at one of the “best of” lists: https://www.intelligenteconomist.com/economics-podcasts/ https://www.intelligenteconomist.com/economics-blogs/ Data: A good way to find data is to look at the data sources provided in the economics papers that you are reading for class. You also can find data on many government agencies, such as the Bureau of Economic Analysis (https://www.bea.gov/data), the Census Bureau (www.census.gov) (the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (www.oecd.org), the International Monetary Fund (data.imf.org), and at the various Federal Reserve Banks. The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis is a particularly good source: (https://fred.stlouisfed.org/) BEFORE THE FIRST CLASS

1. NClass: I use a laptop/smartphone-based program called “NClass” to record attendance, to ask you questions about the material, and to survey your views. Please bring your smart phone or laptop to class every day so that you can record your attendance and participate in the daily questions. You should install the program before the first class. You can find information on how to install the program here: https://www.getnclass.com/

 

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2. Please write a couple of paragraphs telling me why you are enrolled in the Applied

Economics MA program, what was your undergraduate major, your career goals, what you hope to get out of the MA program, and anything else you’d like to tell me about yourself. Bring a copy of your paragraphs to the first class.

3. Read the first 30 or so pages of the article by Daron Acemoglu, “Technical Change, Inequality, and the Labor Market,” Journal of Economic Literature Vol. 40, No. 1 (Mar., 2002), pp. 7-72. Bring a copy to class.

 

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UNIVERSITY POLICY ON OBSERVANCE OF RELIGIOUS HOLIDAYS In accordance with University policy, should notify faculty during the first week of the semester of their intention to be absent from class on their day(s) of religious observance. For details and policy, see: students.gwu.edu/accommodations‐religious‐holidays. 

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY CODE Academic dishonesty is defined as cheating of any kind, including misrepresenting one’s own work, taking credit for the work of others without crediting them and without appropriate authorization, and the fabrication of information. For details and the complete code, see: studentconduct.gwu.edu/code-academic-integrity SUPPORT FOR STUDENTS OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM Disability Support Services (DSS) 202-994-8250 Any student who may need an accommodation based on the potential impact of a disability should contact the Disability Support Services office in Rome Hall, 801 22nd St., NW, Suite 102, to establish eligibility and to coordinate reasonable accommodations. For additional information, see https://disabilitysupport.gwu.edu/ Students must arrange with the DSS office well in advance of needing the service. Counseling and Psychological Services 202-994-5300 GW’s Colonial Health Center offers counseling and psychological services, supporting mental health and personal development by collaborating directly with students to overcome challenges and difficulties that m ay interfere with academic, emotional, and personal success. For additional information, see healthcenter.gwu.edu/counseling-and-psychological-services. SAFETY AND SECURITY

In an emergency: call GWPD 202-994-6111 or 911 For situation-specific actions: review the Emergency Response Handbook:

safety.gwu.edu/emergency-response-handbook In an active violence situation: Get Out, Hide Out or Take Out: go.gwu.edu/shooterprep Stay informed: https://safety.gwu.edu/stay-informed

 

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ECON 6301 Schedule of assignments (subject to change) Problems are from Nicholson and Snyder Intermediate Microeconomics and its Application (N&S) and Simon and Blume Mathematics for Economists (S&B). Readings with a * are required for the PSET. Other readings are provided for those interested in the topic. You can find most articles on JSTOR. Week Problems/Quiz Readings and problems Due 1 PSET 1

Ch. 1 Economic Models Ch. 2 Utility and Choice Mathematics in Microeconomics N&S: 1.8, 1.10 2.3, 2.4, 2.9, 2.10 S&B: 2.9, 2.11 (c, e, g, j, k), 2.20 (c, e, g, j, k) 3.9 (a, g), 3.10, 3.11, 3.19

*Daron Acemoglu, “Technical Change, Inequality, and the Labor Market,” Journal of Economic Literature Vol. 40, No. 1 (Mar. 2002), pp. 7-72. (Read through section 4) Review: What Does Human Capital Do? A Review of Goldin and Katz's "The Race between Education and Technology" Review by: Daron Acemoglu, David Autor Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. 50, No. 2 (June 2012), pp. 426-463. (You can skip section 4) * Dan A. Black, Seth Sanders, and Lowell Taylor, “The Economic Reward for Studying Economics,” Economic Inquiry 41, no. 3 (2003): 365–377. Federal Reserve Board of Governors, Washington, D.C., Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2013, July 2014 http://www.payscale.com/best‐colleges/degrees.asp *Read the article on “The Economic Reward for Studying Economics” and look at the payscale data and the Education section in the “Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2013” *Write a 300-word analysis of the study and identify why the study may be misleading. How would you decide whether your college education is “worth it?” Your analysis should use solid economic reasoning to support your analysis.

2 PSET 2

Ch. 3 Demand Curves N&S: 3.4, 3.5, 3.8, 3.9 S&B: 5.12, 5.15, 6.8

* What is the Price Elasticity of Housing Demand? Eric A. Hanushek and John M. Quigley The Review of Economics and Statistics Vol. 62, No. 3 (Aug. 1980), pp. 449-454 * Consumer Benefits from Increased Competition in Shopping Outlets: Measuring the Effect of Wal-Mart Jerry Hausman and Ephraim Leibtag, J. of Applied Econometrics, 22 (2007): 1157-1187 Annie Lowrey, “Is Uber’s surge-pricing high-tech gouging? Or market efficiency?” The New York Times January 12, 2014. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/12/magazine/is-ubers-surge-pricing-an-example-of-high-tech-gouging.html?_r=0

PSET 1

 

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ECON 6301 Schedule of assignments (subject to change) Problems are from Nicholson and Snyder Intermediate Microeconomics and its Application (N&S) and Simon and Blume Mathematics for Economists (S&B). Readings with a * are required for the PSET. Other readings are provided for those interested in the topic. You can find most articles on JSTOR.

With your group, write a 300-word essay on one feature of Uber’s pricing strategy. You may use additional sources to supplement your analysis. I will grade you on the quality of this essay, so please make sure you proofread, check for grammar, typographical errors, and logical consistency.

3 PSET 3

Ch. 4 Uncertainty Ch. 14 Capital and Time (pp. 446-58 and Appendix 14A Ch. 5 Game Theory N&S: 4.3, 4.4, 4.9, 5.5, 5.7, 5.10 S&B: 4.2, 4.8,14.2, 14.5, 14.6, 22.7

* Sources of Bias and Solutions to Bias in the Consumer Price Index, Jerry Hausman, J. of Econ. Perspectives, Vol. 17, No. 1 (Winter 2003): 23-44 “Search Engine Advertising: Channel Substitution When Pricing Ads to Context,” Avi Goldfarb and Catherine Tucker, 57(3), Management Science (Mar. 2011): 458-70. The Capital Asset Pricing Model: Theory and Evidence, Eugene Fama and Kenneth French, J. of Econ. Perspectives, Vol. 18, No. 3 (Summer 2004): 25-46

PSET 2

4 PSET 4

Ch. 6 Production N&S: 6.2, 6.8, 6.10 S&B: 5.5, 5.6, 5.8 14.4, 14.7

* “The Engineering Approach to Economic Production Functions Revisited: An Application to Solar Processes,” G. Thomas Sav The Journal of Industrial Economics Vol. 33, No. 1 (Sep. 1984), pp. 21-35 “Challenges to Mismeasurement Explanations for the US Productivity Slowdown,” Chad Syverson, J of Econ. Perspectives, Vol. 31, No. 2 (Spring 2017), pp. 165-86. Multifactor Productivity Trends. Bureau of Labor Statistics. www.bls.gov/mfp

PSET 3 Description of paper with title, abstract, and intro

5 PSET 5

Ch. 7 Costs N&S: 7.2, 7.6, 7.8 S&B 2.22, 2.24, 3.15, 6.3, 18.12, 18.17

* Koener, Roger, “Optimal Scale and the Size Distribution of American Trucking Firms,”Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, Vol. 11, No. 1 (Jan. 1977), pp. 54-67

PSET 4

 

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ECON 6301 Schedule of assignments (subject to change) Problems are from Nicholson and Snyder Intermediate Microeconomics and its Application (N&S) and Simon and Blume Mathematics for Economists (S&B). Readings with a * are required for the PSET. Other readings are provided for those interested in the topic. You can find most articles on JSTOR. 6 PSET 6

Ch. 8 Profit Maximization and Supply N&S 8.2, 8.6, 8.8 S&B 3.22, 22.10, 22.11

* “Tax Incidence in a Vertical Supply Chain: Evidence from cigarette wholesale prices,” Kyle Rozema, National Tax J., September 2018, 71 (3), pp. 427-50. “Corporate Tax Incidence: Review of General Equilibrium Estimates and Analysis,” Jennifer Gravelle, 66(1), Nat’l Tax J. (March 2013): 185-214.

PSET 5 Lit Review and Voice Thread 1

7 PSET 7

Ch. 9 Perfect Competition N&S 9.2, 9.4, 9.7, 9.10 S&B 17.4

* “The Window Tax: A Case Study in Excess Burden,” Wallace E. Oates and Robert M. Schwab, J. of Econ Perspectives, Vol. 29, No. 1, Winter 2015, pp. 163-180. “Budgetary and Efficiency Effects of Housing Taxation in the United States,” Y. Nakagami and A.M. Pereira, Journal of Urban Economics, September 1996:68-96

PSET 6 Comments on VT 1

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No assignment Ch. 10 General Equilibrium

“Policy Watch: Trade Adjustment Assistance,” Katherine Baicker and M. Marit Rehavi, The Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 18, No. 2 (Spring, 2004), pp. 239-255. “Welfare Costs of U.S. Quotas in Textiles, Steel and Autos,” Jaime de Melo and David Tarr, The Review of Economics and Statistics Vol. 72., No. 3 (Aug. 1990), pp. 489-497.

QUIZ 1 (Ch 1-9) PSET 7  

9 PSET 8

Ch 11 Monopoly N&S 11.2, 11.7, 11.8 S&B 3.21, 15.27

* “The State of Competition and Dynamism: Facts about Concentration, Start-Ups, and Related Policies,” Jay Shambaugh, Ryan Nunn, Audrey Breitwieser, and Patrick Liu, The Hamilton Project, 13 June 2018 https://www.hamiltonproject.org/papers/the_state_of_competition_and_dynamism_facts_about_concentration_start_ Council of Economic Advisers, “Benefits of Competition and Indicators of Market Power,” Issue Brief, April 2016, pp. 1-17. Jean-Pierre Dube, “Product Differentiation and Mergers in the Carbonated Soft Drink Industry,” J. of Economics and Management Strategy, 14, No. 4 (2005): 879-904.

10 SPRING BREAK 11 PSET 9

Ch 12 Imperfect Competition N&S:12.1, 12.3, 12.9 S&B 17.6, 17.7

* “On the Workings of a Cartel: Evidence from the Norwegian Cement Industry,” Lars-Hendrik Roller and Frode Steen, American Econ. Rev., 96 (March 2006), pp., 321-88. “Are Price-Cost Markups Rising in the United States? A Discussion of the Evidence,” Susanto Basu, J. of Econ. Perspectives, Vol. 33, No. 3 (Summer 2019): 3-22.

PSET 8

 

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ECON 6301 Schedule of assignments (subject to change) Problems are from Nicholson and Snyder Intermediate Microeconomics and its Application (N&S) and Simon and Blume Mathematics for Economists (S&B). Readings with a * are required for the PSET. Other readings are provided for those interested in the topic. You can find most articles on JSTOR.

Pinelopi K. Goldberg and Frank Verboven, “Cross-country Price Dispersion in the Euro Era: A Case Study of the European Car Market,” Economic Policy, 19, No. 40 (December 2004): 483-521. “The Lerner Index of Monopoly Power: Origins and Uses,” Kenneth G. Elzinga and David E. Mills, The American Economic Review, Vol. 101, No. 3, Papers And Proceedings Of The One Hundred Twenty Third Annual Meeting of The American Economic Association (May 2011): 558-64.

12 PSET 10

Ch. 13 Pricing in Input Markets (Monopsony)

* “Wal-Mart’s Monopsony Power in Local Labor Markets,” Alessandro Bonanno and Rigoberto A. Lopez, Paper presented at the American Agricultural Economics Association Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL, July 27-29, 2008. Neil Irwin, Are Superstar Firms and Amazon Effects Reshaping the Economy? New York Times, Aug. 25, 2018. Minimum Wages and Employment: A Case Study of the Fast-Food Industry in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, David and Alan B. Krueger, The American Economic Review, Vo. 84, No. 4 (Sept. 1994), pp. 772-793.

PSET 9 Draft paper (bring 2 copies to class)

13 PSET 10, cont’d

Ch. 16 Externalities N&S: 13.2, 13.4, 13.10, 15.2, 15.8, 16.1

“Income Inequality, Mobility, and Turnover at the Top in the US, 1987-2010,” Gerald Auten, Geoffrey Gee, Nicholas Turner, American Economic Review, Vol. 103, No. 3, (May 2013): 168-72. * “Should We Tax Sugar-Sweetened Beverages? An Overview of Theory and Evidence,” Hunt Allcott, Benjamin B. Lockwood, Dmitry Taubinsky, J. of Econ. Perspectives, Vol. 33, No. 3, (Summer 2019), pp. 202-27.

Comments and rubric for draft paper

14

Ch. 15 Asymmetric Information

The RAND Health Insurance Experiment, Three Decades Later, Aviva Aron-Dine, Liran Einav, Amy Finkelstein Vol. 27, No. 1, Winter 2013 (pp. 197-222)

PSET 10

15

No assignment Quiz 2 Upload 2nd VT and make comments on 3 VTs

16

Final paper Final paper, 2 copies of drafts with comments, Rubric

Paper by 6 pm

 

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Summary of due dates for the paper and dates of quizzes (Problem sets are due on BB by noon on Tuesday.) Week 4 (2/5) Upload description of paper include a title, abstract and introduction Week 6 (2/19) Upload literature review, formatted properly, and first VoiceThread (VT) Week 7 (2/26) Comment on at least three VTs Week 8 (3/4) QUIZ 1 Week 11 (3/25) Upload draft paper and bring two copies to class Week 12 (4/1) Comments and rubric for draft paper that you are reviewing (give to classmate) Week 14 (4/15) Upload second VoiceThread Week 15 (4/22) QUIZ 2 Comment on three VTs. Week 16 (5/4) Upload final paper and drop off the paper, the assessment sheet with comments

from your classmate, and the two draft papers with comments from me and your classmate. Due by 6 p.m. in my office and final paper uploaded to Blackboard on

Monday, May 4