Berkeley: the University Feed

March 05, 2012

Econ 1: Spring 2012: UC Berkeley: Files for March 5, 2012 Lecture

Econ 1: Spring 2012: UC Berkeley: Files for March 5, 2012 Lecture:

on March 05, 2012 at 06:03 AM | | Comments (1)

March 04, 2012

Clark Kerr on Dorothea Lange and Paul Taylor

About Dorothea Lange: Lange's Berkeley Connections: Professor emeritus Clark Kerr, former Berkeley chancellor and President of the University of California, earned his Ph.D. in 1939 under Paul Schuster Taylor, M.A. '20, Ph.D. '22. Taylor achieved international notice for his writing and for the work he did with his wife, photographer Dorothea Lange, on the poor and dispossessed. Kerr's recollections of these two Californians are adapted from his chapter in Dorothea Lange: A Visual Life, edited by Elizabeth Partridge '74 and published by Smithsonian Press.

Clark Kerr, 1994:

Paul Schuster Taylor was an explorer, not of seas and continents, but of nearly unnoticed social events as they began to take form. He was among the first to put several of these events on the map of history, to make them part of terra cognito. He began with the early migration of Mexicans to California, to south Texas, to Colorado, to Chicago, to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in a series of studies published by the University in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

He turned then to the unemployed, when one-quarter of the American labor force was fully unemployed and another quarter was partially unemployed. It was at this point that I first met Paul; he invited me to be his research assistant, starting in the fall of 1933.

I had hardly arrived in Berkeley when the largest and bloodiest strike of agricultural workers in American history began in the San Joaquin Valley. I spent six weeks in the Valley, and Paul came down on weekends. He gave me only two instructions: to record what people said -- their own words -- and to send him my notes as soon as possible. I gathered later that these were the same instructions Paul first gave to Dorothea Lange, except that she worked with photographs and I with notes.

Paul first came in contact with Dorothea's photographs in the summer of 1934, when he saw her picture of a strike orator in a local art gallery. Dorothea was then a studio portrait photographer of local fame in San Francisco, but she also had started to go out into the streets in the deep Depression years. Thus she was already moving toward Paul's history-in-the-making before she met him. Their joint interests moved her all the way in that direction, and she became one of the great documentary photographers of all time.

Paul and Dorothea had complementary skills but contrasting personalities. She was always moving, mostly talking, reacting in a flash, living in the moment. Paul thought carefully about everything, spoke seldom and then softly. An illustration: During the cotton picker's strike, he drove us back to Berkeley one Sunday night in my Model A Ford roadster. We stopped at a rural gas station, and he got out. Another car -- identical to mine -- drove up and the driver also got out. I was asleep in the front seat of my car and woke as the driver of the second car -- which was now missing -- yanked open the door and grabbed me by the throat. He wanted to know what I had done with his wife! Once I grasped the situation, I wanted to know what he had done with my professor!

Some time later, Paul drove up and got into my car, and off we went to Berkeley. I sat there wondering: Did the wife wake up screaming? Did he suddenly realize that his research assistant was not female? All the way back to Berkeley, he never said a word.

While Dorothea was not interested in politics -- she was interested in people -- Paul did have political concerns in addition to human compassion. He was appalled at mass unemployment and at exploitation in the fields and of the fields. This was not the America he had fought for in World War I as a lieutenant in the Marines, commanding a platoon with 95 percent casualties, himself one of them, at Château-Thierry and Belleau Wood. (He prized his Marine uniform all his life.) Paul was also the subject of Red-baiting due to his support of sanitary labor camps for agricultural workers and his long opposition to the illegal diversion of water intended for family farms to the owners of the vast "factories in the fields."

Although Paul's original interest in Dorothea stemmed from his conception of the camera as a tool of research, their relationship became far more than a professional collaboration. It became a great love affair. Paul later said: "It was always a wonderful thing to see her. Always. Just to come into the room where she was." Years later, I would visit Paul in the old redwood house on Euclid Avenue which Dorothea had chosen for them. As Paul played Beethoven softly on his hi-fi set, we would talk about being on the ground in the Thirties. Dorothea' name would come up and Paul would sit there with tears streaming down his face as I recalled his tender words -- "just to come into the room where she was."

Dorothea in her very last days said what a pleasure it was to take a picture and to see that what you have done is "true." Paul and Dorothea wrote, in An American Exodus, "We have let them speak to you face to face." The "them" were the unemployed man in the breadline; the migrant mother and the children clinging to her; the Okie in the Model T Ford, moving west, fleeing the dust; the Mexicans living alongside the irrigation ditches; the Japanese Americans crowded into detention camps. Through the notes and the photographs of Paul and Dorothea, we are indeed brought face to face with "them" and with their histories, which are a part of the history of our nation, and we know that what we read and see is true.

on March 04, 2012 at 09:11 AM | | Comments (4)

February 28, 2012

Econ 1: Spring 2012: U.C. Berkeley: Consumers and Firms: February 29, 2012 Lecture Files

Econ 1: Spring 2012: U.C. Berkeley: Consumers and Firms: February 29, 2012 Lecture Files:

on February 28, 2012 at 04:15 PM | | Comments (0)

February 27, 2012

Econ 1: Spring 2012: U.C. Berkeley: Problem Set 4

http://delong.typepad.com/20120227-econ-1-problem-set-4.pdf

on February 27, 2012 at 07:16 PM | | Comments (0)

February 26, 2012

Econ 1: Spring 2012: U.C. Berkeley: Correcting and Overriding Markets: February 27, 2012

Econ 1: Spring 2012: U.C. Berkeley: Correcting and Overriding Markets: February 27, 2012:

on February 26, 2012 at 10:49 AM | | Comments (1)

February 25, 2012

J. Bradford DeLong: Budgeting and Macroeconomic Policy: A Primer

A lecture about the short-run, medium-run, and long-run impact of government budget deficits on the economy, with sundry observations on political economy, delivered to John Ellwood's GSPP 269 class on February 2, 2012. Edited. 11,103 words:

20120202 DeLong for Ellwood Budgeting and Macroeconoic Policy

on February 25, 2012 at 04:19 PM | | Comments (5)

February 22, 2012

Econ 210a: U.C. Berkeley: Spring 2012: February 29: The Uneven Spread of Industrialization

February 29. The Uneven Spread of Industrialization (DeLong)

on February 22, 2012 at 12:11 PM | | Comments (1)

February 18, 2012

Econ 1: Spring 2012: U.C. Berkeley: Lecture Notes for February 1: Mechanics of Supply of Demand

Econ 1: Spring 2012: U.C. Berkeley: Mechanics of Supply of Demand:

on February 18, 2012 at 07:35 PM | | Comments (0)

February 17, 2012

Econ 1: Spring 2012: UC Berkeley: Solutions to Problem Set 3

on February 17, 2012 at 01:46 PM | | Comments (0)

Econ 1: Spring 2012: U.C. Berkeley: Review "Office Hours" in Wheeler Fridays 11-12

From: Brad DeLong
To: Econ 1 Students
Subject: Review "Office Hours" in Wheeler on Fridays...

The 200 people who came to the pre-midterm Friday "office hour" in Wheeler 11-12 believed that it was useful...

So given that attendance at my W2-5 office hours up in Evans Hall has been low--a total of only 27 people in the 5 weeks the term has been running--I am going to repeat Wheeler Friday "Office Hours"...

However:

  1. They will run from 11-11:50, so that we can be out of Wheeler before Robert Reich's class starts to funnel in...

  2. March 2 I have to be in New York for my niece's Bat Mitzvah, March 23 I have to be in Washington for a Brookings Institute Conference, April 13 I have to be in New York for a Russell Sage Conference, and April 27 I have to be in Los Angeles...

  3. That leaves us with March 9, March 16, April 6, April 20, and May 4...

on February 17, 2012 at 12:26 PM | | Comments (0)

Econ 1: Spring 2012: U.C. Berkeley: Pre-Midterm Review "Office Hours" in Wheeler: Friday February 17, 2012

on February 17, 2012 at 12:12 PM | | Comments (0)

February 16, 2012

Econ 210a: Spring 2012: U.C. Berkeley: Memo Question for February 22: American Exceptionaism:

Econ 210a: Spring 2012: U.C. Berkeley: Memo Question for February 22: American Exceptionalism:

Robert Allen for Britain and Peter Temin for the U.S. (in Temin's case, channeling earlier historians like Rothbarth and Habakkuk) both argue that high real wages combined with abundant resources led to a distinctive pattern of industrialization. Along with obvious similarities, their arguments also display important differences. What are these differences and for what do they matter?

on February 16, 2012 at 01:21 PM | | Comments (2)

February 15, 2012

Econ 1: Spring 2012: U.C. Berkeley: Lecture Files for February 15, 2012

on February 15, 2012 at 04:32 AM | | Comments (0)

February 14, 2012

Econ 1: Spring 2012: U.C. Berkeley: Midterm Information

  1. The exam will take place on Wednesday, February 22 from 11:10 AM - 12:00 PM. We will need to start handing out exams a few minutes before the official start, so please arrive promptly and get seated quickly so we can be ready to start right at 11:10.

  2. No blue books are necessary; you will write directly on the exam. No calculators, cell phones, or electronic devices are allowed in the exam. Time will be announced periodically during the exam. If you are worried about keeping track of time, please wear a wristwatch that day.

  3. To give you ample space during the exam, we have divided the students, based on GSI, into different rooms for the exam. Students (except DSP) should report to classrooms on Feb. 22 at 11:10 AM as follows:

Wheeler Aud: Ashley Clark, Haozhe Wang, Eric Huff, Natarajan Chakrapani, Jason Barbose, Sean LaGuardia

106 Stanley: Sarah Thomason

1 Pimentel: Katherine Murtha, David Puzey, Frankie Le, Fahd Majeed

105 North Gate: Gaurav Shetti

GSI names and emails are in "GSI-section info" under the Resources tab on bspace. Please go to your assigned room. It is not good if exams go to the wrong GSIs.

on February 14, 2012 at 08:19 PM | | Comments (1)

February 13, 2012

Econ 1: Spring 2012: U.C. Berkeley: Sample Exam--Midterm 1

on February 13, 2012 at 08:41 PM | | Comments (0)

February 12, 2012

Econ 1: Spring 2012: U.C. Berkeley: Problem Set 2 Solutions

on February 12, 2012 at 10:20 AM | | Comments (0)

Econ 210a: Spring 2012: U.C. Berkeley: The Industrial Revolution: February 15, 2012

February 15. The Industrial Revolution (DeLong):

Industrial Revolution Memo Question

on February 12, 2012 at 10:08 AM | | Comments (0)

Econ 1: Spring 2012: U.C. Berkeley: Files for February 13, 2012 Lecture

Governments Create Markets; Governments Correct Markets:

on February 12, 2012 at 07:40 AM | | Comments (1)

February 08, 2012

Econ 210a: UC Berkeley: Spring 2012: Memo Question: To what extent should we view the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in Britain as a unique turning point in economic and social development?

Econ 210a: UC Berkeley: Spring 2012: Memo Question:

To what extent should we view the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in Britain as a unique turning point in economic and social development?

on February 08, 2012 at 06:31 PM | | Comments (5)

Econ 1: U.C. Berkeley: Spring 2012: Files for February 8 Lecture

on February 08, 2012 at 04:19 PM | | Comments (1)

It looks as though my office hours will be interrupted at 3 by a (hopefully) brief faculty meeting...

It looks as though my office hours will be interrupted at 3 by a (hopefully) brief faculty meeting...

Office hours today: 2-3, 4-6.

on February 08, 2012 at 10:46 AM | | Comments (1)

February 07, 2012

Economics 1, 001|Spring 2012|UC Berkeley - Download free content from UC Berkeley on iTunes

Economics 1, 001|Spring 2012|UC Berkeley - Download free content from UC Berkeley on iTunes

on February 07, 2012 at 06:49 PM | | Comments (0)

February 06, 2012

Econ 1: Spring 2012: U.C. Berkeley: Problem Set 3

Problem Set 3

on February 06, 2012 at 08:02 PM | | Comments (0)

February 05, 2012

Econ 1: U.C. Berkeley: Spring 2012: Lecture Files for February 6, 2012

on February 05, 2012 at 08:45 AM | | Comments (0)

February 02, 2012

Memo Question for February 8, 2012: Slavery and Serfdom

Memo Question for February 8, 2012: Slavery and Serfdom:

Adam Smith in the Wealth of Nations has a theory about unfree labor. It is, he says, economically inefficient. But wherever demand is very high relative to supply masters will resort to slave labor because it yields them powerful psychic income:

The experience of all ages and nations, I believe, demonstrates that the work done by slaves, though it appears to cost only their maintenance, is in the end the dearest of any…. Whatever work he does beyond what is sufficient to purchase his own maintenance, can be squeezed out of him by violence only, and not by any interest of his own. In ancient Italy, how much the cultivation of corn degenerated, how unprofitable it became to the master, when it fell under the management of slaves, is remarked both by Pliny and Columella….

The pride of man makes him love to domineer, and nothing mortifies him so much as to be obliged to condescend to persuade his inferiors. Wherever the law allows it, and the nature of the work can afford it, therefore, he will generally prefer the service of slaves to that of freemen. The planting of sugar and tobacco can afford the expense of slave cultivation. The raising of corn, it seems, in the present times, cannot. In the English colonies, of which the principal produce is corn, the far greater part of the work is done by freemen…. The profits of a sugar plantation in any of our West Indian colonies, are generally much greater than those of any other cultivation that is known either in Europe or America; and the profits of a tobacco plantation, though inferior to those of sugar, are superior to those of corn, as has already been observed. Both can afford the expense of slave cultivation…

Was he right? Was he wrong?

on February 02, 2012 at 07:27 AM | | Comments (25)

Guest Lecture: The Macroeconomics of Government Budgeting

Goldman School of Public Policy 269.  Public Budgeting. (4):  

Three hours of lecture/discussion per week. Formerly 209. Public sector budgeting is an activity that incorporates many, perhaps most, of the skills of the public manager and analyst. The goal of this course is to develop and hone these skills. Using cases and readings from all levels of American government, the course will allow the student to gain an understanding of the effects and consequences of public sector budgeting, its processes and participants, and the potential impacts of various reforms. Graduate level of Public Policy 179. TTh 3:30-5, GSPP 250

20120202 DeLong Presentation PP 269 Ellwood.pdf

Lecture Audio

on February 02, 2012 at 06:51 AM | | Comments (0)

February 01, 2012

Economics 210a: U.C. Berkeley: Spring 2012: Apropos of the Agricultural Revolution in Britain

Food for thought related to Allen on nitrogen:

Henry Farrell and Cosma Shalizi, "Evolutionary Theory and the Dynamics of Institutional Change"

on February 01, 2012 at 07:38 PM | | Comments (2)

Econ 210a: Spring 2012: U.C. Berkeley: The Agricultural Revolution

on February 01, 2012 at 06:23 PM | | Comments (1)

Econ 1: U.C. Berkeley: Spring 2012: Answers for Problem Set 1

Suggested answers for problem set 1

on February 01, 2012 at 11:02 AM | | Comments (3)

January 31, 2012

Felix Salmon on Sebastian Thrun and Udacity

Felix Salmon:

Udacity’s model: [T]hree very good questions about Sebastian Thrun’s new online university, Udacity, which I wrote about last week. I spoke to Thrun yesterday, so I took the opportunity to clear them up.

Reich begins:

  1. Why did Thrun need to quit Stanford? Why not pursue the project under the umbrella of Stanford, with its enormous and global reputation? Indeed, hadn’t he already carried out a demonstration proof of the concept with his Artificial Intelligence class at Stanford? Why not just continue with that in expanded form at Stanford?

As Thrun says on his homepage, he quit Stanford on April 1, 2011 — before offering the free class in artificial intelligence — “primarily to continue my employment with Google”…. This helps to answer another of Reich’s questions. “If Thrun developed [the AI] class as a faculty member at Stanford,” he asks, “then doesn’t Stanford have some claim on at least the course content?” The answer, it seems, is that Thrun developed the class after he gave up his position at Stanford. And as a result, the course content belongs not to Stanford but rather to KnowLabs, Thrun’s company…. Leaving Stanford, Thrun told me, “was the only way I could pull this off. The statement that we could let the students take exams and compare themselves to Stanford students, is something I don’t think the university would have approved.”

When NPR interviewed Thrun for a story about Udacity, they also got a none-too-enthusiastic statement from Stanford:

Thrun’s colleague Andrew Ng taught a free, online machine learning class that ultimately attracted more than 100,000 students. When I ask Ng how Stanford’s administration reacted to their proposition, he’s silent for a second. “Oh boy,” he says, “I think there was a strong sense that we were all suddenly in a brave new world.” Ng says there were long conversations about whether or not to give online students a certificate bearing the university’s name. But Stanford balked and ultimately the school settled on giving students a letter of accomplishment from the professors that did not mention the university’s name. “We are still having conversations about that,” says James Plummer, dean of Stanford’s School of Engineering. “I think it will actually be a long time — maybe never — when actual Stanford degrees would be given for fully online work by anyone who wishes to register for the courses.”

Stanford, then, has managed to come out of this story smelling reasonably good: it helped give Thrun the launching pad for Udacity, and didn’t visibly complain…. [T]he sign-up rate for Udacity’s new courses seems to be exactly the same as the sign-up rate for the AI class which was co-branded with Stanford: the lack of a Stanford branding doesn’t seem to have hindered Udacity much. And similarly, the incredible success of Khan Academy has taken place without any co-branding with a venerable legacy institution….

Udacity is very much a teaching institution rather than a research institution. “At Stanford, priority is your research career,” says Thrun. “That is counter to teaching 100,000 students, who generate 100,000 emails.” Looked at from a 30,000-foot view, Stanford is the institution being disrupted here, it’s not the institution doing the disrupting. And that also helps explain why Thrun isn’t doing Udacity under the auspices of Google. He says that Udacity does fit quite easily into Google’s mission of making the world’s information available for free, but that at the same time Google doesn’t need a dog in this particular fight. “Having a clean slate is a better way to start,” says Thrun. “The last thing I want is people asking whether Google is disrupting education. Better to ask if Sebastian is trying to disrupt education.” (That said, Thrun’s friend and boss Sergei Brin does feature prominently in the launch video for Udacity’s first course; it’s clear that Udacity has Brin’s strong support. And of course Google is also a big supporter of Khan Academy, having gifted it some $2 million.)…

Reich's second question:

  1. Why is Udacity a for-profit company? Thrun said that Udacity courses would be free to students, and Thrun cited Salman Khan and Khan academy as inspiration and model for what he’s doing. But Khan Academy is non-profit. Stanford University is a non-profit. Thrun says he wants to democratize higher education, offering knowledge to the world for free. How does this mission fit with his for-profit online university?

I asked Thrun about this, too, and he replied by saying that “for profit is not forced to make profit. I needed to get people together really fast, and it’s much easier to do that under the ways of a Silicon Valley company.” Certainly the speed with which Udacity launched, complete with a high-quality staff, is testament to the natural velocity with which things get done in Silicon Valley. Driving the launch was seed funding from Charles River Ventures, while the site’s jobs page proudly offers “Competitive salary, benefits, and Series A stock options” to anybody thinking about working at Udacity…. [O]nline education is young enough that it’s worth trying many different models to see which ones work. Udacity seems to be built on the standard VC model of get scale first, worry about monetizing it later…. “We should try many different things,” says Thrun. “I believe in the educational revolution that Salman started. I believe that education can change the world. So why not try a hundred of those things.”…

A large part of the success of both Khan’s courses and Thrun’s is the way that they’re presented and executed…. Khan, in particular, is a hugely gifted natural educator. And what both of them aspire to doing is to build what Thrun calls “magic” into the way that they teach. Thrun wants to add another element, too — community. His courses have a start date and an end date and deadlines… that makes them inherently social in a way that Khan’s YouTube videos aren’t.

Finally, asks Reich,

  1. What to make of Thrun’s apparent pleasure at the fact that 170 of the 200 Stanford students who had enrolled in the real, not online, version of the Stanford AI class stopped coming to class, preferring the online Thrun to the flesh-and-blood Thrun?

That pleasure, I’m quite sure, is genuine. I think that Khan and Thrun are at the forefront of a new, more personal way of teaching — think of them as having screen-actor skills in a world which has historically rewarded stage-actor skills. When you teach online, you’re teaching in a conversational manner, in a one-on-one space. And it turns out that many students — quite possibly most students — prefer being taught that way…. [T]he incentives for the teacher are so much greater online, if like most teachers you’re driven by the opportunity to impart knowledge to students. “This is the best thing I can do in my life,” says Thrun. “I empowered more students in 2 months than in my entire life before. On that scale, I was off the charts in the last quarter.” And of course Thrun is barely on the charts if you compare him to the number of students that Khan has reached.

What Khan and Thrun and others are creating is a new educational paradigm, which promises not only much greater scalability than anything we’ve had until now, but also higher-quality education. That’s the real lesson of Thrun’s Stanford students taking his class online…. The trick is intimacy, in a way which takes full advantage of the lean-forward nature of computer screens…. [I]t’s a much more immersive and intimate experience. Blow that YouTube video up to full screen, and jump down the rabbit hole. You might just learn something.

on January 31, 2012 at 07:15 AM | | Comments (5)

January 30, 2012

Econ 1: U.C. Berkeley: Spring 2012: Files for January 30, 2012 Lecture: Market Equilibrium

Files for January 30, 2012 Lecture: Market Equilibrium:

on January 30, 2012 at 02:02 PM | | Comments (1)

Econ 1: Spring 2012: UC Berkeley: Announcements for January 30, 2012

Number of open seats > # people on the waitlist. People can get in, as long as they switch into a section that has open seats (using Telebears): 22 people on the waitlist and 26 available seats

Any more manual processing of the waitlist should be done by the middle of this week

Any questions about enrollment can be directed to Lanwei Yang... She has year last set of office hours Monday 1-5 PM, 534 Evans

on January 30, 2012 at 05:20 AM | | Comments (0)

January 28, 2012

Econ 191: U.C. Berkeley: Spring 2012: April 3, 2012: David Romer: Monetary Policy at the Zero Nominal Interest Rate Lower Bound

April 3. Professor David Romer: Monetary Policy at the Zero Lower Bound:

on January 28, 2012 at 04:31 PM | | Comments (0)

Econ 191 Main Website

http://emlab.berkeley.edu/users/webfac/eichengreen/e191_sp12/e191.shtml

on January 28, 2012 at 04:27 PM | | Comments (0)

ECON 1: SPRING 2012: U.C. BERKELEY: FROM THE (WORLD READABLE) CHATROOM: JANUARY 26, 2012-JANUARY 28, 2012

RUCHIKA GUPTA (Jan 26, 2012 9:24 PM PST) When drawing the supply curve in our homework why do we make steps (a horizontal line and a vertical line) to connect the points as opposed to connecting them by straight lines like in a PPF?

J. Bradford DELONG (Jan 27, 2012 5:58 AM PST) It is because of the way we set up the problem: the supply curve is flat because each producer has a constant opportunity cost of teaching yoga lessons. If they got bored as they taught more lessons--and so needed more money to teach the fifth lesson than the first to make it worth their while--we would have a supply curve without steps.

J. Bradford DELONG (Jan 27, 2012 12:42 PM PST) Re: "how do you calculate opportunity cost if a worker can produce n of one good and 0 of the other. The opportunity cost of the other would be n/0 which is undefined" Would you be happier at saying that the limit of the opportunity cost is infinity as productivity at making the good approaches zero?

THERESA FRUZSINA ANDRASFAY (Jan 27, 2012 7:11 PM PST) I'm noticing this problem set is not only long but the problems each are pretty time intensive. I'm just wondering if the exams are going to be a similar difficulty level.

J. Bradford DELONG (Jan 27, 2012 7:13 PM PST) As I said, the first problem set was double length in an attempt to clear the waitlist. It seems to have worked: at the moment we have 26 available seats and a waitlist of 27...

JOSEPH JAE MIN AHN (Jan 27, 2012 11:31 PM PST) Can anyone tell me where I can find out how to find expected values?

TAI CAO TRAN (Jan 28, 2012 12:17 AM PST) Based on our section, (taken from a worksheet) Expected Value = [probability that the person will be making x item] x [amount of item the person can make]. For example: Greg can make 10 lattes and Dharma can make 2 lattes. The probability that either Greg or Dharma will be making latte is 50% (say they flip a coin to determine who will make latte). So Greg making lattes EV would be 5 (1/2 * 10) vs Dharma making lattes EV would be 2 (1/2 * 1). FYI, I'm still trying to incorporate that to #3 of the problem set.

J. Bradford DELONG (Jan 28, 2012 8:56 AM PST) Remember: expected values are easy because they add: E(a + b) = E(a) + E(b). Expected values are easy because they are just probabilities times outcomes: E(a) = P(a=A) x A, where P() means "probability" and E() means "expected value"

on January 28, 2012 at 08:59 AM | | Comments (1)

January 27, 2012

Econ 1: Spring 2012: U.C. Berkeley: Problem Set 2

Due at the start of section following the Monday, February 6 lecture:

Problem Set 2

Problem Set 2: Demand and Supply; Market Equilibrium

J. Bradford DeLong/Lanwei Yang/etc.

Econ 1: Spring 2012: U.C. Berkeley

Due at first section after Monday, February 6 lecture

  1. Suppose that there are four people in the economy who demand yoga lessons: Kautilya (a government economist) with an income of $1000/week, Thasuka Witko (a herder and politician) with an income of $500/week, Buffy Summers (a student at U.C. Sunnydale) with an income of $300/week, and Sappho (a poet) with an income of $600/week. Kautilya spends 1/5 of his income on yoga lessons, Thasunka Witko spends 1/10 of his income on yoga lessons, Sappho spends 1/4 of her income on yoga lessons, and Buffy Summers spends half of her income on yoga lessons. Draw the demand curve for yoga lessons in this economy. What is demand for yoga lessons if the price of yoga lessons is $10/hour? $20/hour? $30/hour? $40/hour? $50/hour?

  2. Consider the same situation as in question (1) but with one difference. Changes in Buffy Summers's life circumstances--the opening of the Mouth of Hell on the U.C. Sunnydale campus--lead her to have no demand for yoga lessons at all as she has to spend all of her income buying sharp wooden stakes. Learning about Buffy's predicament leads Kautilya to boost his yoga expenditures to 1/4 of his income, leads Thasuka Witko to drop yoga entirely and join Buffy in her family business, while Sappho continues to spend 1/4 of her income on yoga lessons. Draw the demand curve for yoga lessons in this economy. What is demand for yoga lessons if the price of yoga lessons is $10/hour? $20/hour? $30/hour? $40/hour? $50/hour?

  3. This new situation sees the rapid growth of a wooden stake-making industry to deal with the influx of vampires onto the U.C. Sunnydale campus. Buffy can make 20 stakes a shift and has an alternative occupation she enjoys as much as stake-making that pays her $60 a shift. Kautilya can make 10 stakes a shift and has an alternative occupation he enjoys as much as stake-making that pays him $200 a shift. Sappho has an alternative occupation she enjoys as much as stake-making that pays her $120 a shift and can make 30 stakes a shift. Thasuka Witko has an alternative occupation he enjoys as much as stake-making that pays him $100 a shift and can make 8 stakes a shift. Draw the supply curve for stakes on the U.C. Sunnydale campus. How many stakes are supplied if the price of each stake is $1? $2? $4? $8? $15? $30? $50?

  4. In this new situation, Buffy realizes that she can order wooden stakes over the internet in unlimited quantities for a price including next-day FedEx shipping of $10/stake. Draw the new supply curve for stakes.

  5. In the same situation as problem (4), suppose that there is a demand for 10 stakes a shift. Who makes stakes? What is the market price of stakes? How about if there is a demand for 50 stakes a shift? 100 stakes a shift? 200 stakes a shift?

  6. Suppose that, on and near the U.C. Sunnydale campus, the weekly supply curve for lattes is given by the equation Q = max(1000 P - 2000, 0) : nobody makes any lattes unless the price is above $2/latte, and for each $1 the price is above $2 an extra 1000 lattes are made. Suppose that customers have $10,000/week to spend on lattes. Draw the supply curve and the demand curve. What is the equilibrium price of lattes? What is the equilibrium quantity of lattes?

  7. Suppose, in the same situation as (6), that the arrival of new, charismatic yoga teachers reduces the amount of money customers have to spend on lattes to $6,000/week. Draw the supply curve. Draw the old and the new demand curves. What is the new equilibrium price of lattes? What is the new equilibrium quantity of lattes?

  8. Suppose that, in the same situation as (6), scary newspaper stories about the health dangers of yoga lead customers to cut back on their purchases of yoga lessons and increases the amount of money they have to spend on lattes to $14,000 a week. Draw the supply curve. Draw the old and the new demand curves. What is the new equilibrium price of lattes? What is the new equilibrium quantity of lattes?

  9. Suppose that, on and near the U.C. Sunnydale Campus, the supply curve for yoga lessons is Q = 100 P. Suppose that customers have $10,000/week to spend on yoga lessons. Draw the supply and demand curves. What is the equilibrium price of yoga lessons? What is the equilibrium quantity? Suppose that the amount of money customers have to spend on yoga lessons rises to $14,000/week? Suppose it falls to $6,000/week?

  10. In the same situation as (9), suppose that the professors at Crony Capitalism Corrupt Rail Baron University 50 miles to the south become lazier, decide they want to teach less, and offer full course credit toward their degree to students who are willing to offer yoga lessons at U.C. Sunnydale. Suppose that enough students to teach 500 places in yoga classes a week drive up to U.C. Sunnydale to add to those offering yoga classes. Draw the new supply curve. Draw the demand curve if people have $10,000/week to spend on yoga lessons. What is the equilibrium price of yoga lessons? What is the equilibrium quantity? Suppose that the amount of money customers have to spend on yoga lessons rises to $14,000/week? Suppose it falls to $6,000/week?

on January 27, 2012 at 06:05 PM | | Comments (3)

Econ 1: U.C. Berkeley: Spring 2012: I Am Sick of Typing in the Long URL for the bspace Website...

…so here is a shorter one: http://tinyurl.com/delong-Econ1Sp12

on January 27, 2012 at 01:16 PM | | Comments (0)

What Is the Most Popular TV Show Among 18 Year Old Californians Today?

I need examples for my Econ 1 class. Dharma and Greg, Buffy, and Star Trek will no longer cut it...

on January 27, 2012 at 12:14 PM | | Comments (35)

Econ 1: Spring 2012: U.C. Berkeley: Revised Syllabus: Course Topics

Revised Syllabus: Course Topics

on January 27, 2012 at 11:39 AM | | Comments (0)

Who Is Teaching in Wheeler This Semester?

Here we all are:

MWF 9: UGBA 10: Robinson
MWF 10: Hist 7b: Einhorn
MW 11: Econ 1: DeLong
MW 12: Psych 1: Gade
F 12: L&S C180U: Reich
MW 2: Nut 10: Faghihnia
M 4-6: PH 116: Potts
W 4-5: PolSci 179: Ross

TTh 8-9:30: Int Bio 132: Brooks
TTh 9:30-11: MCB 61: Presti
TTh 11-12:30: Math 16b: Johnson
TTh 12:30-2: Anthro 1: Deacon

Still kinda surprised that Wheeler is apparently open MW 1-4, and TThF after 2

on January 27, 2012 at 10:18 AM | | Comments (2)

January 26, 2012

Decisions, Decisions...

Spend more time revising draft 0 of the Brookings paper, or go listen to Christina and David Romer give their "The Great Recession" lecture in their American Economic Policy course?

on January 26, 2012 at 12:38 PM | | Comments (5)

Econ 210a: UC Berkeley: Spring 2012: Readings for February 1, 2012: The Agricultural Revolution

February 1. The Agricultural Revolution (DeLong)

on January 26, 2012 at 11:45 AM | | Comments (3)

Econ 210a: U.C. Berkeley: Spring 2012: Memo Question for February 1, 2012: Agricultural Revolution

Does the Agricultural Revolution deserve its "R"? That is, is it well-conceptualized as a "Revolution" rather than as something much slower and much more gradual?

on January 26, 2012 at 11:40 AM | | Comments (0)

UC Berkeley: Spring 2012: Economics Courses Webcasts

UC Berkeley Webcasts | Video and Podcasts: Events by Category

on January 26, 2012 at 11:30 AM | | Comments (1)

Econ 1: UC Berkeley: Spring 2012; iTunesU Podcasts of Lectures

Economics 1, 001|Spring 2012|UC Berkeley - Download free content from UC Berkeley on iTunes

on January 26, 2012 at 11:14 AM | | Comments (1)

Econ 1: Spring 2012: U.C. Berkeley: From the (World Readable) Chatroom: January 13, 2012-January 26, 2012

J. Bradford DELONG (Jan 13, 2012 8:46 AM PST) Welcome to Econ 1, Spring 2012...

J. Bradford DELONG (Jan 13, 2012 2:04 PM PST) Yes, there are sections on Tuesday, January 17. Moreover, if you do not attend your sections the first week, even if they happen before the first lecture, THE ECONOMICS DEPARTMENT AUTOMATICALLY DROPS YOU FROM THE COURSE. YOU MUST THEN RE-ENROLL. AND YOUR RE-ENROLLMENT PRIORITY PUTS YOU BEHIND ALL CURRENT MEMBERS OF THE WAITLIST. So, yes, go to section on January 17...

J. Bradford DELONG (Jan 13, 2012 4:23 PM PST) The first assignment will be going out by email in less than 24 hours. It will be to read the "Preface", "Prologue", and "Macroeconomic History" sections of Dasgupta's "Economics: A Very Short Introduction" before your first section...

J. Bradford DELONG (Jan 13, 2012 5:42 PM PST) There are at least 30 available seats in the lecture--and at least 5 sections with open seats in them. Why are you on the waitlist rather than in the class?

J. Bradford DELONG (Jan 14, 2012 9:34 AM PST) The first assignment is to read the "Preface", "Prologue", and "Macroeconomic History" sections of Dasgupta's book, "Economics: A Very Short Introduction", before your first section...

J. Bradford DELONG (Jan 14, 2012 12:41 PM PST) I'm looking for four students who would like to join me for lunch (my treat) at A Musical Offering after lecture on January 23. First come, first served...

YIJIA MAO (Jan 16, 2012 4:33 PM PST) Professor, I bought the textbook "Principles of Microeconomics" at cal bookstore, but you are not one of the author. The authors are Janet Gerson, Paula Malone and Chris Proulx. Is it the correct textbook? By the way, do we have to buy this textbook? Or can we just buy the other three books? From course website, I cannot find what chapters we need to read in "Principles of Microeconomics".

J. Bradford DELONG (Jan 16, 2012 4:53 PM PST) Yes. Gerson, Malone, and Proulx just taught from this version last semester at Michigan...

J. Bradford DELONG (Jan 23, 2012 10:48 AM PST) First Essay “Intro to GSI” due at start of next section... One more week to do problem set 1... iClicker points will start for real next Monday... Econ 1 §106 REASSIGNED TO 156 DWINELLE...

J. Bradford DELONG (Jan 25, 2012 5:36 AM PST) what's the textbook situation, anyway? Any sign that the next tranche of the order has arrived at the bookstore?

J. Bradford DELONG (Jan 25, 2012 3:49 PM PST) 34 students on the wait list, 26 places in the class. If 8 more drop, the wait list is going to clear...

J. Bradford DELONG (Jan 26, 2012 9:14 AM PST) We are now down to a waitlist of 32 with 28 seats available. This waitlist is going to clear...

J. Bradford DELONG (Jan 26, 2012 9:14 AM PST) And I guess I did not have to make the first problem set a double-length one after all...

RUCHIKA GUPTA (Jan 26, 2012 10:44 AM PST) how do you calculate opportunity cost if a worker can produce n of one good and 0 of the other. The opportunity cost of the other would be n/0 which is undefined

J. Bradford DELONG (Jan 26, 2012 11:00 AM PST) Don't say "undefined"! Say "larger than any real number"! There is a symbol for a quantity larger than any real number: "∞".

DEBORAH MARI FRIAS (Jan 26, 2012 8:25 AM PST) Professor Delong, for some reason when I click on the lecture audio, it doesn't work. And I asked the staff if your lecture will be podcasted and they said no.

J. Bradford DELONG (Jan 26, 2012 11:02 AM PST) Are you sure? It looks like there is a podcast of the lectures here: http://itunes.apple.com/itunes-u/economics-1-001-spring-2012/id496401496

on January 26, 2012 at 11:08 AM | | Comments (3)

ECON 1: SPRING 2012: U.C. BERKELEY: WAIT LIST

At the moment, 28 seats available and 32 people on the waitlist. This sucker is going to clear...

I guess I did not have to make the first problem set a double-length problem set after all...

on January 26, 2012 at 09:19 AM | | Comments (0)

January 25, 2012

I Have Renewed Respect for Louie and Freddy...

Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich von Hayek that is.

If only we had a market university rather than this centrally-planned administered monstrosity, I would have been willing to pay good money not to have my Wednesday teaching scheduled from 11-12 in Wheeler and then 12-2 in Evans…

on January 25, 2012 at 03:48 PM | | Comments (6)

Econ 1: Spring 2012: Student Reviews of January 25, 2012 Lecture

Students demand: less lecturing about the socialist calculation debate, more demonstrations of how to draw Production-Possibility Frontiers...

on January 25, 2012 at 03:37 PM | | Comments (0)

A Note on Office Hours

A Note on Office Hours

OK. It is now clear the way office hours are going to work. They are going to start in either Evans 597 or Evans 601 at 2 PM on Wednesdays (depending on where I am at that moment), and then I will gradually drift upward to Evans 601--with occasional runs into Evans 611 to grab cookies and coffee.

on January 25, 2012 at 02:55 PM | | Comments (1)

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