Introduction to Economic Analysis

Fall 2010

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.

Class News

• [12/15] Widgets! Your creativity on the widget question on the final is now on display. Enjoy!
• [12/15] The grade file has now been updated with final exam grades.
• [12/13] Solutions for the final exam are now posted online.
• [12/9] Solutions for Problem Set #8 are now posted.
• [12/4] Jeff's class lecture notes are now posted in pdf form.
• [12/2] A set of review questions for the final exam (< 100) is now posted. Use them as study tools if you find them helpful. It is possible that some of these questions or variations of them may appear on the final.
• [12/2] Group research projects will be discussed at tonight's activity session. The schedule and links to the reports are now posted.
• [11/16] Economic naturalist topics that will be discussed on Thursday, November 18, are now posted on the Web site. Please take a look at them before the discussion so that you have some background.
• [11/8] Income-distribution graphs from today's class are now available.
• [9/16] Slides from the double-oral auction analysis presented on Thursday evening are now available.
• Note that this Web site applies only to the Monday/Wednesday/Friday section taught by Jeff Parker. Professor Clausing's Tuesday/Thursday sections will have a different schedule, assignments, etc.

Bad Economist Joke of the Week

An economist was crossing a road one day when a frog called out to him and said, "If you kiss me, I’ll turn into a beautiful princess." He bent over, picked up the frog, and put it in his pocket.

The frog spoke up again and said, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a beautiful princess, I will stay with you for one year." The economist took the frog out of his pocket, smiled at it, and returned it to his pocket.

The frog then cried out, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a princess, I’ll stay with you for a year and do anything you want." Again the economist took the frog out, smiled at it and put it back into his pocket.

Finally, the frog asked, "What’s the matter with you? I’ve told you I’m a beautiful princess, and that I’ll stay with you for a year, and do anything you want. Why won’t you kiss me?"

The man said, "Look, I’m an economist.  I don’t have time for a girlfriend… But a talking frog is cool!"

-Adapted from Jeff Thredgold's On the One Hand