Extra Credit for MICRO CLASS ONLY

In micro I gave out an extra credit assignment that will be due next week. You are to find an newspaper article that illustrates some market mechanism that you find interesting. Then you are to discuss what market mechanism the article highlights and why you find it interesting. Illustrate how to understand the article in the supply and demand diagram we learned in class. Write about 1 paragraph and make it good. Don't write about simple things like when supply increases the price drops. this can be part of what you say, but don't make it the only thing you say.

I will think of a macro extra credit assignment when we learn more about the macro models.

take care,

SPAM e-mail

It looks like OCCs e-mail server is sending a lot of student e-mails to my junk folder. I respond to every student e-mail that I get. If I didn't respond to your e-mail, then please keep trying to contact me. You can leave a message on my voice mail at work.

714-432-5852

take care,

Postings to Aplia

I'm liking how you can send messages via aplia to each class individually. Different things happen in different classes. So from now on, I will use this blog as a spot where I can post handouts. All announcements will be made through aplia's announcement tool.

take care,

For Monday 6pm class only

Your class meets only 1x per week, so I'm not used to not meeting in the latter half of the week. We will have 4 quizzes this semester, and you will be taking one next class (2/13). Prepare by doing aplia and then we will review in class before taking the quiz. It will be a written quiz, not a multiple choice one, so you need to be able to produce the material from scratch, not just choose an option.

Also, If you were absent last class and did not take the pretest, you must do so before the next class. E-mail me about setting up a time.

Aplia HW

OK, so Aplia is new to me too, and I'm still figuring out how the assignments are best presented to you. Let me explain my thinking right now.

Each week, I will look at what we've done and try to enter in the assignments for 2 weeks ahead. That way you will have at least 1 week advanced notice of what we will be covering.

I am dumping all extra assignments we will not do in to week 17. When we get there, you do not have to do those assignments. I don't want to permanently delete them right now.

I want the assignments to be graded except for the getting to know aplia assignment. It should be on "do no harm setting."

Please help me out and tell me when things are screwy.

thanks,

Enrolling in other classes

It turns out that TuTh 12:45 class now has very few spots. There were way more students who wanted to switch than I thought. So if you think you want to add that class, then you will need to attend that class and try to petition in person just like all the other classes.

This goes for all the classes you are trying to petition. In the next week, there will still be a certain amount of switching, so if you really want a particular class, be sure to keep coming to one class while trying to get the other one.

good luck,

Enrolling in M macro

I have noticed that only 37 people have signed up in aplia for the Monday night Macro class.

You may think that you can get by without this tool. But I will warn you that if you choose to not do HW in this class, you will almost certainly fail the course. In class, we had a little discussion about being in or out of the study I am conducting. That is still true, but that does not mean you should not do HW. The aplia tool will be your way to do HW. If you do not sign up, you will be on your own to figure out the material. If you think you can do the class all by yourself, good luck to you.

I will see you in class tomorrow and remember to bring your red scantron and your pencil.

Petition Codes

I have given out several add codes that have not been used yet. You cannot hold on to the add codes just to see if something else better comes up. All add codes that have not been used by Friday will become void. If you add after that, I will drop you so that another student who has been coming to class can add.

Please indicate your intention to take the class by enrolling.

I will look at enrollment this weekend and see how many people can switch classes.

good luck,

Entrance Survey

Please print out this survey and answer the questions to the best of your ability and turn it in next class.

thanks

Buying the textbook

If you buy the text book at the bookstore, you are also buying the aplia payment code with it. The price at the bookstore is something like $172, so that's $90 for aplia and $82 for the book.

The bookstore also sells an aplia only card for $90?? I'm not sure of the price. They do this because sometimes students need to put their books in financial aid. So students can purchase the aplia code from the bookstore instead of using their own credit card. Of course this option does not come with a hard copy book.

The third option is to go to aplia directly, enroll in the proper class and pay them through your own credit card. For those not caring about using financial aid to buy books, this option is no different than the second one.

take care,

Tuesday and Thursday classes only

I will be absent on Thursday in order to go to an economics conference. I want you to begin working on the first week aplia assignments. You don't need to do the supply and demand stuff if you don't want to yet. You will be taking your pretest on Tuesday.

Please take the Entrance Survey

Please print out this survey and answer the questions to the best of your ability and turn it in next class.

thanks

WELCOME SPRING 2012 CLASSES

You can download the syllabus for your course and read it.

Micro classes

Macro classes

And here are the aplia access codes

MW 2:20 - 3:55 9DA2-E8CP-BGTX
MW 3:55 - 5:20 FWES-RHTX-BPJY
M 6:00 - 9:10 L6YM-BVEV-YZ3U
TuTh 11:10 - 12:35 G7PH-QQJL-FQ43
TuTh 12:45 - 2:10 6CPK-D7GA-L9MB

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.

Quiz 3 pdf file

Here are the most recent quizzes

Micro

Macro