Econ 1 Feed

What Do Econ 1 Students Need to Remember Most from the Course?: Hoisted from 2010

The Souk of Marrakech

Hoisted from 2010: What Do Econ 1 Students Need to Remember Most from the Course? http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2010/12/what-do-econ-1-students-need-to-remember-most-from-the-course.html: Economics deals with those things that we want but that are "scarce".


Discussion Questions on Partha Dasgupta: Science and Technology as Institutions

Science and Technology as Institutions

  • What does it mean for knowledge to be "non-rival"?
  • Given that knowledge is "non-rival", what justification could there possibly be for charging people for access to knowledge and its uses?
  • If people weren't allowed to charge others for access to knowledge and its uses, would there be any reason to think that society would be putting a properly-large share of our resources into creating and disseminating knowledge?
  • Why can contests and the rule of priority be good ways to spur the creation and dissemination of knowledge?
  • How well do contests and the rule of priority fit with a private-property market economy?

Partha Dasgupta (2007): Economics: A Very Short Introduction


Discussion Questions on Partha Dasgupta: Sustainable Economic Development

Sustainable Development

  • Why are we destroying our fisheries?
  • Why are we rapidly using up our atmosphere's capacity to absorb carbon dioxide without substantial increases in temperature?
  • Why is such a large chunk of our population potentially short of fresh water?
  • Why have we been able to successfully capture and use 40% of the photosynthesis on earth without already severely disrupting our planet?
  • How have we managed to become so much more numerous and rich since 1800 without rapidly-rising prices of pretty much all natural resources?

Partha Dasgupta (2007): Economics: A Very Short Introduction http://amzn.to/2gR2jH3


Discussion Questions on Partha Dasgupta: Macroeconomic History

Macroeconomic History

  • In the long sweep of human history, is Becky very lucky, lucky, unlucky, or very unlucky?
  • In the long sweep of human history, is Desta very lucky, lucky, unlucky, or very unlucky?
  • How much richer is the world today than it was in the long centuries from 5000 BC to 1800?
  • How much richer are the world's rich today than the world's poor today?
  • What would count as an explanation of this divergence across space and time--that is, what kinds of things would count as "causes" and make you happy that you understood what was going on?
  • How many useful "hierarchies of causation" can you imagine here?

Partha Dasgupta (2007): Economics: A Very Short Introduction http://amzn.to/2gR2jH3


Discussion Questions on Partha Dasgupta: Societal Well-Being and Democratic Government

Societal Well-Being and Democratic Government

  • What are T.H. Marshall's "three revolutions"?
  • Why is each of them important?
  • How does a government based on T.H. Marshall's "three revolutions" tend to promote a prosperous market economy?
  • Does a prosperous market economy tend to promote T.H. Marshall's "Three Revolutions"--and if it does, does it promote them all?

Partha Dasgupta (2007): Economics: A Very Short Introduction http://amzn.to/2gR2jH3


Recommended Reading: Partha Dasgupta's "Economics: A Very Short Introduction"

San Francisco Bay

What I (try to) make my principals students read before class begins; Partha Dasgupta (2007): Economics: A Very Short Introduction http://amzn.to/2gR2jH3. Question: should I try to make my students in my other classes read it too?

Econ 2: Spring 2014: Why We Read Partha Dasgupta:

Me: Note: This is a game theorist's short introduction to economics. Its focus is on:

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Econ 1: Spring 2016: U.C. Berkeley: Microeconomics: Broader Political Economy Issues



What to Teach the Undergraduates About Business Cycles?

Let me promote this to "highlighted" status, and flag it: it is time I once again tried to think hard about just what the "macro" weeks of introductory economics are for:

Time to Start Teaching the Undergraduates About Business Cycles: How to begin? What is the vision I went them to take away and remember?

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Econ 1: Spring 2016: UC Berkeley

Letter of Introduction: By the start of your first section meeting during the week starting January 25, please write a 250-word essay--a “letter of introduction”--to your GSI. Provide your preferred name (and set your preferred name in BearFacts: http://registrar.berkeley.edu/preferred-name.html), include your email, and attach a picture. In this letter, discuss:

  • the reasons why you are choosing to spend 3% of your scarce college curriculum time taking this course this year,
  • what you hope to learn from this course,
  • what you hope to do in the future as a result of this course, and
  • whatever else about yourself that you would like to share with your GSI.

Auxiliary Readings: Historical, Psychological, and Moral-Philosophical Context: Econ 1: Spring 2016: UC Berkeley

Still thinking about auxiliary readings for next semester...

Can I afford to assign a third auxiliary reading book?

And, if I can, which of these should it be?:


This file: http://www.bradford-delong.com/2015/09/auxiliary-readings-historical-psychological-and-moral-philosophical-context-econ-1-spring-2016-uc-berkeley.html


Auxiliary Readings: From the Left: "No One Makes You Shop at Wal-Mart"...: Econ 1: Spring 2016: UC Berkeley

And to counterbalance Friedman and Director Friedman--what? Last time I used Tom Slee (2006): No One Makes You Shop at Wal-Mart http://amzn.to/1Lnok7L. It seemed not quite up to the task of countering Friedman and Director Friedman, but still better than anything else I could find. Is it still the best thing around?

I should go off and read John Kenneth Galbraith (1977): The Age of Uncertainty http://amzn.to/1LnoKeB...

Something by Dani Rodrik, perhaps?...


This file: [http://www.bradford-delong.com/2015/09/auxiliary-readings-from-the-left-no-one-makes-you-shop-at-wal-mart-econ-1-spring-2016-uc-berkeley.html]


Auxiliary Readings: From the Right: "Free to Choose"...: Econ 1: Spring 2016: UC Berkeley

To help the students in Econ 1 next semester put the course, and the discipline of Economics, into its proper moral-philosophical context...

Is there anything better from the right to assign than Milton and Rose Director Friedman (1980): Free to Choose http://amzn.to/1OklF0r? Can I ask the students--Berkeley freshmen and sophomores for the most part--to read anything more sophisticated? And is there anything more recent or more sophisticated and of equivalent length that is better?

And to counterbalance Friedman and Director Friedman--what? Last time I used Tom Slee (2006): No One Makes You Shop at Wal-Mart http://amzn.to/1Lnok7L. It seemed not quite up to the task, but still better than anything else I could find...

This file: http://www.bradford-delong.com/2015/09/auxiliary-readings-from-the-right-free-to-choose-econ-1-spring-2016-uc-berkeley.html


What to Read to Gain Perspective on Economics?: DeLong FAQ

A question of special interest to me right now because the departmental powers-that-be have decided to ask me to go back onto the 700-person Econ 1 Wheeler teaching line next spring...

Chris Y.: A colleague (middle grade civil servant) has sent this request to Mrs Y:

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Hoisted from the Archives: Brad DeLong: Econ 1: U.C. Berkeley: Spring 2012: Partha Dasgupta: Prologue to "Economics: A Very Short Introduction"

Brad DeLong: Econ 1: U.C. Berkeley: Spring 2012: Partha Dasgupta: Prologue to "Economics: A Very Short Introduction":

Becky's world

Becky, who is 10 years old, lives with her parents and an older brother Sam in a suburban town in America's Midwest. Becky's father works in a firm specializing in property law. Depending on the firm's profits, his annual income varies somewhat, but is rarely below 145,000 US dollars ($145,000). Becky's parents met at college. For a few years her mother worked in publishing, but when Sam was born she decided to concentrate on raising a family. Now that both Becky and Sam attend school, she does voluntary work in local education. The family live in a two-storey house. It has four bedrooms, two bathrooms upstairs and a toilet downstairs, a large drawing-cum-dining room, a modern kitchen, and a family room in the basement. There is a plot of land at the rear - the backyard - which the family use for leisure activities.

Continue reading "Hoisted from the Archives: Brad DeLong: Econ 1: U.C. Berkeley: Spring 2012: Partha Dasgupta: Prologue to "Economics: A Very Short Introduction"" »


Econ 1: Spring 2012: U.C. Berkeley: Revised Syllabus: Macroeconomics

PART III: MACROECONOMICS

W Apr 4: What Macroeconomics Is (Principles of Macroeconomics, lectures 1-3)

  • Reading for Section: Seabright, Money and human relationships, Honor among thieves? Honor among bankers?

M Apr 9: Aggregate Demand and the Income-Expenditure Framework (Principles of Macroeconomics, lectures 4-5)

  • Reading for Section: Seabright, Professionalism and fulfillment, Epilogue to parts I and II

W Apr 11: Dealing with the Great Recession (Principles of Macroeconomics, lecture 6)

  • Reading for Section: Seabright, Prologue to part III, The city, Water
  • Section: Second short essay: “Friedman and Director Friedman and the Politics of Economics” due
  • Section: How to do problem set 7: strategy/labor/inequality

M Apr 16: Origins of the Great Recession (Principles of Macroeconomics, lectures 7-8)

  • Reading for Section: Seabright, Prices for everything? Families and firms
  • Section: problem set 7 due.

W Apr 18: Inflation Economics: Aggregate Supply and the Phillips Curve (Principles of Macroeconomics, lecture 9)

  • Reading for Section: Seabright, Knowledge and symbols, Exclusion, Epilogue to Part III
  • Section: How to do problem set 8: aggregate demand and supply

M Apr 23: Budget Economics (Principles of Macroeconomics, lecture 10)

  • Seabright, Prologue to part IV, States and empires, Globalization and political action
  • Section: Problem set 8 due

W Apr 25: Growth Economics (Principles of Macroeconomics, lectures 11-12)

  • Reading for Section: Seabright, How fragile is the great experiment?
  • Section: How to do problem set 9: inflation and unemployment, economic growth

WRAP-UP

M Apr 30: REVIEW

  • Problem Set 9 due.

M May 7 3-6PM: FINAL EXAM

20120403 Econ 1 spring 2012 revised syllabus.pdf


Econ 1: Spring 2012: UC Berkeley: Essay on "Free to Choose"

For your essay on Milton and Rose Director Friedmans' Free to Choose:

Due at the first section meeting after the April 11, 2012 lecture

Write an essay of between 700 and 1000 words on one of the following three topics:

  1. Why is it really a very, very important thing for the Friedmans' argument that they convince peope that the Great Depression was the result of the failure of a government agency--the Federal Reserve--and not the failure of the market system?

  2. What do the Friedmans think are the biggest things wrong with the U.S.'s welfare and social insurance systems as they stood in 1980? Do you think they would find the same to be the system's most important flaws today? Why or why not?

  3. Explain why the Friedmans think that the Food and Drug Administration is unnecessary. The Chinese government executed the head of its counterpart Food and Drug Administration for failing to do his job: for being corrupt and allowing substances dangerous to health and life to enter the domestic and export food value chains. Does this change your view of the Friedmans' argument about the FDA? Why or why not?


Econ 1: Spring 2012: U.C. Berkeley: Answers for Sample Midterm 2

Economics 1: Spring 2012: U.C. Berkeley Sample Second Midterm DRAFT Answers:

Part 0—(1 point/0.5 minutes):

Your name, your GSI, your SID


Part 1—do all five (15 points/7.5 minutes): Write a sentence about the importance of each of the following five concepts in this course:

1) The Friedmans' “three equalities”:

Milton and Rose Director Friedman argued that equality of outcomes is impossible for any society, and attempts to attain it destroy freedom; that equality of opportunity is a worthy goal but one that can never be fully attained; and that equality of perception—equality before God, equality before the law—is necessary for any free society.

2) Monopolistic competition:

A monopolitically competitive market structure is one in which small firms find themselves facing downward-sloping demand curves and thus possess a degree of market power; such a market structure will tend to have more firms and higher average total costs than would be economically efficient, and thus less producer surplus in the long run than would be desirable.

3) Substitution effects:

A substitution effect is that when one price rises and another price falls so as to keep real income constant, then consumers tend to buy less of the first good and more of the second; distinguished from income effects in which either price declines make consumers richer and so they buy more of everything or price rises make consumers poorer and so they buy less of everything.

4) Cost minimization:

Profit-maximizing firms practice cost minimization: they try to make the amount they produce at the least possible cost, and often working out the consequences of cost minimization is the easiest way to solve quantitative problems involving firm behavior.

5) Quotas:

A quota is when the government refuses to allow the quantity of a good sold on the marketplace to exceed a certain level; almost always a bad idea because an inefficient amount of the commodity will be produced and consumed, and it will be produced or consumed or both by the wrong people—by people who are not the low-cost producers or the high-value demanders.


Part 2—do all three (69 points/34.5 minutes):

1) Suppose that Johnny D’s Pirate Emporium has daily fixed costs of $10000, and its marginal cost curve is given by Q = P/2. Suppose that it produces an undifferentiated product in a perfectly competitive industry. Suppose that it is the most efficient firm around. Suppose that its technology and organization is easily copied. At what scale of production—what level of daily quantity Q—is its average total cost minimized for this firm? What does the long-run supply curve look like for this perfectly-competitive industry? Explain your reasoning.

Its average total costs are 10000/Q + Q. At a Q of 10000, ATC=10001; at a Q of 1000, ATC=1010; at a Q of 100, ATC=200, at a Q of 10, ATC=1010. It looks like we should explore what ATC cost curve looks around Q=100. At a Q of 50, ATC=250; at a Q of 100, ATC=250; at a Q of 99, ATC=200.01; at a Q of 101, ATC=200.01. A Q of 100 is the cost-minimizing scale of production for this firm, with an average total cost of 200 per unit.

If the market price is greater than 200, new entrant firms will find it profitable to copy Johnny D’s technologies and organizations, enter the market, and make money. So new firms will enter until the price falls to 200. At a price of 200, only firms as efficient as Johnny D’s will survive--but because its technology and organization are easily copied, there will be lots of such firms. 
>The long-run supply curve will be flat, horizontal, at a price of $200 per unit.

2) Suppose that we consider the daily market for ice-cream sandwiches in the neighborhoods surrounding Crony Capitalism Junior University in the town of Old Stick...

Supply: Q = 3000(P - 2)

Demand: Q = 66000 - 6000 P

What is the equilibrium price? What is the equilibrium quantity? What is the equilibrium producer surplus? Consumer surplus?

Supply = Demand happens when 3000P - 6000 = 66000 - 6000P; 9000P = 72000; P = 8; Q = 18000

Since we have a linear demand curve and the maximum willingness to pay is 11, the average willingness to pay is (11+83)/2 = 9.5, and the average consumer surplus per unit is 1.5. That gives us $27,000 of total consumer surplus. Since we have a linear supply curve and supply = 0 at a price of 2, the average cost to producers is (8+2)/2=5. The average producer surplus per unit is 3. That gives us $54000 of producers surplus.

3) When, broadly, might it be a good thing for a government to impose per-unit taxes on production? For it to offer per-unit subsidies? For it to impose quotas? Price ceilings? Price floors?

Per-unit taxes on production might be a good thing if the government needs to raise revenue to pay for programs that promote the general welfare, or if economic activities cause negative externalities that harm others not directly concerned with production and sale and thus unable to require that production and sale be win-win as a condition of their participation.

Per-unit subsidies might be a good thing if the economic activity subsidized produces positive externalities—spillovers—through advances in knowledge or other channels.

Quotas seem a bad idea always: there are other, better tools for regulation available.

Price ceilings can be welfare enhancing as a way of regulating a monopoly to reduce its market power and so inducing it to produce more. Price floors can be welfare enhancing as a way of regulating a monopsony—a single buyer—and so inducing it to demand more. If the distribution of wealth is inefficient from a utilitarian standpoint, price ceilings and price floors can serve as indirect ways of redistributing wealth to make it more efficient from a utilitarian point of view, but directly redistributing wealth is a better way to achieve that goal.


Part 3—answer the question (15 points/7.5 minutes):

Of all the market structures we have considered—perfect competition, monopolistic competition, oligopoly, and monopoly—which is the best and which is the worst? What do you think the government should try to do to improve market structure in the economy?

A perfect essay would make seven points:

  1. Monopoly is the worst of all possible market structures except when there are very important economies of scale, in which case it may be the best or the only sustainable market structure.
  2. Even when monopoly is the only sustainable market structure, a properly-regulated monopoly with a price ceiling that enables production at the efficient level is far superior, and if regulation is perfect it is as good as perfect competition.
  3. Oligopoly is a mix of perfect competition and monopoly, and partakes of the advantages and disadvantages of both.
  4. Perfect competition is the best of all market structures when producers are making an undifferentiated product and there are no economies of scale.
  5. Monopolistic competition is inferior to perfect competition when firm market power arises from consumers’ lack of knowledge about the market and from the costliness of search.
  6. Monopolistic competition can be superior to perfect competition when different consumers have a genuine liking for different varieties of the good produced.
  7. Regulating markets is a delicate task. Antitrust policies that break up monopolies may destroy efficient economies of scale. Price ceilings that are set too low may produce low quality or low levels of output. More detailed regulations may wind up entrenching monopolies as the only organizations that understand how to work the system the government has set up—especially if regulators use the “revolving door” and come to the government from jobs in and then return from the government to jobs in the regulated industry. You have to balance the costs of market failure against the costs of government failure.