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Econ 200 Class Schedule


Schedule for Week 1 (starting Monday, January 6)

Monday: Introduction to class

Wednesday: Chapters 1 and 2 in Quantum Microeconomics

Friday: Chapter 2



Schedule for Week 2 (starting Monday, January 13)

Monday: Chapters 2 and 3

Wednesday (Fun Day!): Environmental issues

Readings: "I, Pencil," "The Tragedy of the Commons," and "Plenty of Gloom"
Writing assignment: Please write a couple of paragraphs of comments about these articles and post them on the class discussion board by 6am Wednesday morning. You can either write your own comments or respond to someone else's posting.
Some things to think about:
  • What is the central message of "I Pencil"? Of "The Tragedy of the Commons"? Do they agree with or contradict each other? How?
  • What does Garrett Hardin mean by "appeals to conscience" and by "mutual coersion mutually agreed upon"? Think of different policies that exemplify these approaches.
  • The article "Plenty of Gloom" is a polemic, but what do you make of it? Do you agree or disagree, and why? What do you think the authors of the other two articles would say about it?
  • The article "Plenty of Gloom" covers (among other topics) food, oil, minerals, global warming, and population growth. Can you categorize these topics in an interesting way, i.e., do you see similarities between some of them that warrant joint treatment and/or differences that warrant separate treatment?
  • Do you think we're doomed? Why or why not? (Note: I ask this question seriously, and hope that you think about it seriously. If you find it an interesting question, you may be interested in Professor James Karr's sustainability class, Envir 439. That class is based on a rotating lecture series during which speakers from around campus discuss The Premise: "Building a sustainable future depends on (1) restructuring the global economy, (2) major shifts in human reproductive behavior, and (3) dramatic changes in values and lifestyles. If we do not accomplish this restructuring within the next three to five decades, environmental deterioration and economic decline are likely to feed on each other, pulling us into a downward spiral of social disintegration.")

Friday: Chapters 3 and 4



Schedule for Week 3 (starting Monday, January 20)

Monday: No school (Martin Luther King, Jr. Day)

Wednesday (Fun Day!): Games

There is no reading or writing assignment. We'll play some games involving money, and some of the games require you to put up (and potentially lose) some of your own money, so if you want to participate in those games you should bring a few dollars.

Friday: Part I exam; please bring a calculator. The cheat sheet and the answer key to end-of-chapter problems are available here.

Answer key to Part I exam (to be posted after the exam)



Schedule for Week 4 (starting Monday, January 27)

Monday: Chapters 5 and 6.

Wednesday (Fun Day!): Trade

Readings: "The Lawrence Summers Memo" and "Complications". (Note that Lawrence Summers has finished his stint as Treasury Secretary and is now the president of Harvard University.)
Writing assignment: Please write a couple of paragraphs of comments about these articles and post them on the class discussion board by 6am Wednesday morning. You can either write your own comments or respond to someone else's posting.
Some things to think about:
  • Do you think the trade in kidneys should be legalized? Why or why not?
  • Consider the $10,000 black-market price for kidneys. Did this price surprise you? (Did you think it would be higher/lower?) In your opinion, is it a "fair" price? What does that mean?
  • What is the relevance of the Coase Theorem in the illegal kidney trade?
  • Do you think that Lawrence Summers's reasoning is "perfectly logical"? Why or why not? Do you think it's "totally insane"? Why or why not?
  • Do you think it should be legal for rich countries to ship toxic waste to poor countries? Why or why not?
  • Compare and contrast "Complications" (which deals with trade in kidneys) with "The Lawrence Summers Memo" (which deals with trade in toxic waste). What similarities/differences do you see? Do you think they should both be legal, or both illegal, or one legal and one illegal? Defend your opinion on this topic.

Friday: Chapters 6 and 7.



Schedule for Week 5 (starting Monday, February 3)

Monday: Chapters 7 and 8.

Wednesday (Fun Day!): War

Readings: You have two options. Option #1 is to read Chapter 7 (and, if desired, Chapter 8) of Kenneth Pollack's book, The Threatening Storm: The Case for Invading Iraq. Copies of these chapters were available in class today and will be available in class on Monday also; I will also leave some copies in the box outside my office door (Savery 403G). Finally, it appears that you can check out this book from the Reserve Desk in the Odegaard Library. Option #2 is to read some other material(s) that will help you bring an informed opinion to class. Books, articles, editorials or op-ed pieces, philosophical arguments for/against war... just about anything else that will help you bring an informed opinion to class.
Writing assignment: Please write a couple of paragraphs of comments about these issues and post them on the class discussion board by 6am Wednesday morning. You can either write your own comments or respond to someone else's posting. You are free to write on just about any topic as long as it shows that you have done some reading and thinking that has informed your opinion. And your opinion doesn't have to include a "yes" or "no"; it could just be an analysis of one or more relevant issues or other thoughts.
Other notes:
  • I have some concerns about continuing to call this "Fun Day", but then again I didn't have those concerns last week even though we talked about people dying from kidney failure and black market operations &etc. So: I dunno. Please don't take offense.
  • Although I imagine the discussion will focus on the potential war with Iraq, I do want to discuss some other issues. For example: * Should we reinstitute the military draft, or is the current volunteer-based approach better? Which is more "fair" and why? * Is war Pareto efficient or Pareto inefficient? What are the implications in terms of the Coase Theorem?
  • Please bring your opinions, and also your respect for the opinions of others. This is the usual Fun Day deal, but it's especially important on topics like this that some people have intense feelings about. Along the same lines, I encourage you to contact me (e.g., by anonymous email) if you have suggestions or criticisms, or even if you just need/want to vent.
  • When we talk specifically about the potential war with Iraq, I'll try extra hard to shut up and just facilitate. In part this is because I'm not any more of an expert on this than most people, and in part it's because I very much want to avoid the existence or appearance of me "brainwashing" students on a required class day.
  • It's not just enough to bring your opinions---I want you to bring reasonably informed opinions. I especially encourage you to think about the potential war with Iraq in the context of a game tree or decision tree. In particular, I encourage you to think about the different options that are available and to compare them to each other. It is easy to say "war is bad" or "Saddam is bad, so we should take him out"; it is more difficult to say "war is bad, and instead here is what we should do, and this is better because XYZ" or "Saddam is bad, and taking him out is better than the various alternatives because XYZ".
  • If any of you have questions that you want to pose to the rest of the class, please email them to me and I will try to compile them and send them out and/or post them on the discussion board or the website.

Friday: Chapter 9.



Schedule for Week 6 (starting Monday, February 10)

Monday: Tentative date for Part II exam; please bring a calculator. The cheat sheet and the answer key to end-of-chapter problems are available here.

Answer key to Part II exam (to be posted after the exam)

Wednesday (Fun Day): Chapter 10 and double oral auction experiment

There is no reading or writing assignment.

Friday: Chapters 11 and 12. Supply and demand worksheet that we did in class.



Schedule for Week 7 (starting Monday, February 17)

Monday: No school (Presidents' Day)

Wednesday (Fun Day): Politics and voting

Readings: "Mancur Olsen" (obituary from The Economist)
Writing assignment: Please write a couple of paragraphs of comments about voting and post them on the class discussion board by 6am Wednesday morning. You can either write your own comments or respond to someone else's posting.
Some things to think about:
  • Do you vote? Why or why not?
  • Do you pay much attention to public policy issues? Why or why not?
  • The last U.S. presidential election featured four candidates; listed in order of how "liberal" or "lefty" they were, the candidates were Nader, Gore, Bush, and Buchanan. Gore and Bush were the two front-runners, leading to much discussion about whether voting for Nader or Buchanan was "throwing your vote away." What is your opinion on this topic? Note that I am not asking about which candidate you liked the best, but about the specific topic of whether or not voting for Nader or Buchanan was "throwing your vote away".
  • One simple voting strategy is simply to vote for the candidate that you like the best, regardless of his or her chances of winning. The previous question suggests that there are other voting strategies too, such as voting for the candidate that you like the best among the candidates that "have a chance of winning". What kind of voting strategy do you follow or advocate? Why?
  • Are there are voting strategies (e.g., "Always vote for the candidate that you like the best") or voting behaviors (e.g., "Don't vote") that you think are irrational? If so, expalin.

Friday: Chapter 12



Schedule for Week 8 (starting Monday, February 24)

Monday: Chapters 13 and 14

Wednesday (Fun Day!): Transportation

Readings: "Traffic Taxes"
Writing assignment: Please write a couple of paragraphs of comments about this article and traffic congestion and post them on the class discussion board by 6am Wednesday morning. You can either write your own comments or respond to someone else's posting.
Some things to think about:
  • What should we do about transportation?
  • What do you think about congestion pricing (i.e., tolls)?
  • In November Washington voters defeated Referendum 51, which proposed to increase gas taxes by 9 cents per gallon and use the resulting $8 billion to finance transportation improvements (largely road-building) throughout the state. Was R-51 a good idea, and now that it's been voted down, how should we proceed?
  • In the coming year there is likely to be a regional transportation measure for Central Puget Sound (including Seattle). The idea is to "fix" some of the big tranportation problems in Puget Sound (e.g., the Alaska Way Viaduct, the 520 bridge, I-405, extending Sound Transit to Northgate). Is this a good idea?

Friday: Chapters 14 and 15



Schedule for Week 9 (starting Monday, March 3)

Monday: Chapters 15 and 16

Wednesday (Fun Day): Transportation

Readings: "Deregulation Hits a Pothole" and "Cabs to, from Airport Go 20 Million Miles---Empty". Note that the first article gets sort of technical, with lots of statistics and such. You don't need to understand all of this article, but you should be aware that this is pretty typical of economic research and economic writings.
Writing assignment: Please write a couple of paragraphs of comments about these articles and post them on the class discussion board by 6am Wednesday morning. You can either write your own comments or respond to someone else's posting.
Some things to think about:
  • Should the taxi market be deregulated again?
  • Why is good regulation so difficult? Or, if you think it's not difficult, why?

Friday: Tentative date for Exam #3; please bring a calculator. The cheat sheet and the answer key to end-of-chapter problems are available here.

Answer key to Part III exam (to be posted after the exam)



Schedule for Week 10 (starting Monday, March 10)

Monday: Part IV

Wednesday (Fun Day): Cost Benefit Analysis

Readings: There are 4 readings. The first is "An Ethical Critique of Cost Benefit Analysis" from the reading packet. The other readings are available in class but NOT in the reading packet. This first, "Drive Now, Talk Later," is also available on the web. So is the second, "Click, Clack, and Car Talk." Both of these websites have more links &etc that you might be interested in. The third reading, "The Price of Safety," is from the Economist magazine, 11/25/00.
Writing assignment: Please write a couple of paragraphs of comments about these articles and post them on the class discussion board by 6am Wednesday morning. You can either write your own comments or respond to someone else's posting.
Some things to think about:
  • Should we ban cell phones in cars?
  • What do you think of cost-benefit analysis? What are some of the important assumptions behind it? What are some of the costs and benefits, if you will, of cost-benefit analysis?
  • What is the value of life, or of a National Park? Can we put a number on it? Should we?

Friday: Part IV



Final Exam: 8:30-10:20 a.m. Monday, March 17.

Please bring a calculator. Click here for the cheat sheet.

Answer key to final exam (to be posted after the exam)

The final exam will be cumulative. Potential topics include individual decision-making (sunk costs, expected value calculations, present value calculations, fish-are-capital type questions), game theory (sequential move games and game trees, simultaneous move games and payoff matrices, cake-cutting games, finitely repeated games, dominant strategies, iterated strict dominance, Pareto efficiency, Pareto inefficiency, Pareto improvement, auctions), price theory (the theory of supply and demand, shifts in supply and demand, taxes and tax burdens, elasticities of supply and demand), and some basic questions involving the role of government (e.g.: Why are price controls inefficient? Does eliminating a price control constitute a Pareto improvement?).

Click here for an Excel spreadsheet with your grades. You can use this spreadsheet to see how your final exam score will affect your grade.