Introduction to Economic Analysis
Fall 2016
Jeffrey Parker, Reed College
Economics humbles its practitioners both in their optimism and in their doubts. The experience of being disastrously wrong is salutory; no economist should be denied it, and not many are.
- John Kenneth Galbraith
Class News
Information relevant to the class will be posted here. You should bookmark this page to make sure that you do not miss these notices.
- [11/30] I have scheduled a final-exam review session for Monday, December 12, from noon to 1:00 in Vollum 110. As always, there will be no agenda, so bring questions for me to discuss.
- [11/29] I have posted a lengthy set of final-exam review questions to help you prepare for the final exam. Questions from this set (or similar questions) will be used on the actual final exam. A few questions pertain to subjects that were lightly covered this year and are denoted with asterisks.
- [11/17] I have made topic and group assignments for the group projects. There was a great deal of overlap in preferences among students and not everyone could work on the most popular topics. Nonetheless, it was possible to assign all students (who responded) to topics they rated with one of the two highest expressions of interest. In many, but not all, cases it was also possible to groups students with their preferred classmates. Three topics overlap between sections. Each group should do its own individual research; for example, do not combine the 10:00 coffee group with the 11:00 coffee group to form one large group.
- [11/15] Problem Set #7 is now posted. It is due on Wednesday, November 23. This is the day before Thanksgiving. Any students who are planning to depart early and miss class on the 23rd should submit their problem sets before leaving campus or ask a classmate to submit them on the 23rd.
- [11/15] The online coded grade file has been updated to include the midterm exam and Friday's (but not Monday's) case questions.
- [11/12] I have posted the macro data graphs from Friday's class.
- [11/11] Information about the group research projects is now posted. Please look over the suggested topics and then respond to the Moodle survey indicating your preferences among topics and listing potential group partners. Please respond by Wednesday, November 16. Responses received later than that may not be considered in assigning topics and groups.
- [11/2] The spreadsheet of results from today's voluntary-contribution experiment is now posted.
- [9/21] Questions from class on consumer equilibrium are now posted.
- [9/14] Slides from the class presentation on the double-oral auction experiment are now posted.
- [9/7] The supply-demand multiple-choice questions discussed in class (and those for which we didn't have time) are now posted.
- [8/29] The Economics Department has a mailing list "econseminar" that is used to keep economics students informed of events, activities, job opportunities, etc. I recommend that you sign up for the list at https://www.lists.reed.edu/mailman/listinfo/econseminar.