RED Scantron

This is the last blog entry for this semester.

Please remember to bring a RED scantron for the exam.

I have passed out progress reports that include all your grades. Check them to make sure everything is ok. If there are any issues, staple evidence of the error to the grade report and return it to me by Thursday.

Also, I need everyone to fill out an exit survey. I'll be passing this out M and Tues.

Grade Projections

I may have given some of you wrong information if you came to talk to me about your grades. The computer program I use was putting in blank scores incorrectly. I have corrected this error, and all those blank scores have been turned into zeros. If you have turned in all your stuff, then this doesn't affect you. But if you had some missing assignments, it is likely that your score is lower than I told you.

I will print out progress reports for next week and pass them out for you to check your grades.

Please handle all grade requests next week.

thanks,

Scantron for Final

This is a reminder that you need to bring a RED scantron to the final

Remaining Answers to end of chapter questions

There are no more HW assignments due, but in case you wanted to see the answers to the back of chapter questions, here are the remaining chapters.

Micro

Chapter 14Chapter 17Chapter 19
Macro

Chapter 30Chapter 31Chapter 32

Majority Voting

Today a student asked if trading votes can solve the problem of inefficient majority voting. I said that trading votes may sometimes result in better outcomes, and sometimes result in worse outcomes. Here are some examples to illustrate that.

Suppose a project costs $600 and three people will each have to pay $200 for the project. Person 1 values it at 300,person 2 values it at 75 and person 3 values it at 175. From society's perspective, the project should be voted down, and with no vote trading, it would be. Person 2 would vote no and so would person 3. But person 1 can pay person 3 up to $100 and change his vote. This would turn an efficient vote into an inefficient one.

I think, that you can come up with many scenarios that sometimes improve efficiency when votes are traded and sometimes decrease efficiency when votes are traded. Because you can come up with scenarios on both sides, it is not logically necessary for vote trading to improve efficiency.

However, I do have to say that if vote trading came with zero transactions costs, then the Coase Theorem would seem to apply and the efficient solution would result. I think the question hinges on the restrictions and conditions you put on how votes can be traded. In the example above, that was only one way the votes could be traded. Notice that person 2 would be willing to pay up to $125 to ensure a no vote. this would result in person 2 avoiding the tax of $200. We never specified how votes could be traded, and without this specification, it's hard to draw any concrete conclusions.

please feel free to share your thoughts on this with Mr. Goldenballs :)

Final Help

Here's the worksheet explaining how to write good answers for your final

For TuTh micro classes, I'll be explaining this soon. The MW class is ahead of you. The macro class has a different assignment, but it still may help.