Sequence of Topics.

Note: for detailed schedule and assignments, log in to MyEconLab. Apart from the textbook readings, the articles and links below are not required -- you will not be tested on them. They are for your amusement, edification, and enrichment. I hope you will take a look at them. You will probably find some of them interesting.

 Introduction to class mechanics and MyEconLab.

Thinking like an economist .

• Textbook reading:  Chapter 1 (Heyne et al., chapter 1), pp. 3-19.
• Lecture slides.
• "Something About Tax Cuts or Earnings or Money or Something in Recent Economic News," The Onion, September 29, 2010.
• Paul Seabright, "Indian cotton, Portuguese fibres and collars from Brazil: The story of a shirt," The Times (London), July 2, 2004.
• Clive Crook, "Capitalism: the Movie," The Atlantic Monthly , March 2006.
• Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt, "Unintended Consequences," The New York Times Magazine, January 20, 2008.

• Robert Whaples, "Do Economists Agree on Anything? Yes!" The Economists' Voice: Vol. 3: No. 9, Article 1 (2006).
• David R. Henderson, "The Role of Economists in Ending the Draft," Econ Journal Watch 2(2): 362-376 (August 2005).
• Duncan Watts. Everything Is Obvious: *Once You Know the Answer. (New York: Crown, 2011). Read Chapter 1, "The Myth of Common Sense," available as a free preview.
• Video: Steven Levitt: the Freakonomics of inner-city gangs.

 Gains from trade.

• Textbook reading
  • Print: pp. 21-92. Read all, but you're not responsible for the technical analysis on pp. 65-71.
  • Online: chapter 2, pp. 36-64, and chapter 3 (Hubard and O'Brien chapter 8) , pp. 242-282. Read all, but you're not responsible for the technical analysis in section 8.4, pp. 255-260.
• Lecture slides.
• Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt, "Flesh Trade: Weighing the Repugnance Factor," The New York Times Magazine, July 9, 2006.
• Annie Lowrey, "The Kidney Trade: Can Economists Make the System for Organ Transplants More Humane and Efficient?" Slate, December 15, 2010.
• Hal R. Varian, " An iPod Has Global Value. Ask the (Many) Countries That Make It," The New York Times, June 28, 2007.
• Galina Hale and Bart Hobijn, "The U.S. Content of 'Made in China,'” Federal Reserve Bank of San Franciso Economic Letter 2011-25, August 8, 2011.
• Michael Cox and Richard Alm, "The Fruits of Free Trade," Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Annual Report 2002.
  
• Video: Humanity on a Cross of Iron.

Supply and demand .

• Textbook reading
  • Print: pp. 94-125. Also read pp. 128-163 for concepts and definitions, but you won't be asked to compute elasticites.
  • Online: Chapter 4 (Hubbard and O'Brien, chapter 3). Also read chapter 5 (Hubbard, chapter 6) for concepts and definitions, but you won't be asked to compute elasticites.
• Virginia Postrel, "A Tale of Two Town Houses," The Atlantic Monthly, November 2007.
• Video: Cash for Clunkers.
• Lecture slides.

 
Willingness to pay and price controls.

• Textbook reading
  • Print: pp. 166-198. (You're not responsible for the appendix, pp. 199-203.)
  • Online: Chapter 6 (Hubbard Chapter 4). You're not responsible for the appendix.
• Alexei Barrionuevo, "Mountains of Corn and a Sea of Farm Subsidies," The New York Times, November 9, 2005. p. A1.
• Simon Romero, "Chávez Threatens to Jail Price Control Violators," The New York Times, February 17, 2007.
• Marion Nestle, "Sugar: What I Didn't Say on Colbert," The Atlantic Monthly, August 21, 2009.
• Casey Mulligan, "Did the Minimum Wage Increase Destroy Jobs?" The New York Times, March 10. 2010.
• Celia Dugger, "Efforts Meant to Help Workers Batter South Africa’s Poor," The New York Times, September 26, 2010.
• Burton A. Abrams and George R. Parsons, "Is CARS a Clunker?" The Economists' Voice: Vol. 6 : Iss. 8, Article4 (2009).
• Video: Seinfeld on rent control.
• Lecture slides.

Taxation and Public Choice.

• Textbook reading
  • Print: pp. 206-239. You're not responsible for the analysis on pp. 226-227.
  • Online: Chapter 7 (Hubbard, chapter 18). You're not responsible for the analysis on pp. 618-619.
• Casey Mulligan, "Who Pays for Big Government?" The New York Times, December 1, 2010.
• Robert H. Frank, "Why Not Shift the Burden to Big Spenders?" The New York Times, October 7, 2007.
• Link: History of US tax brackets and tax rates.
• Link: Tax rates and compliance costs around the world.
• Video: The Laffer Curve.
• Slide Show: Redistribution and the Impact of Obama's Policies
• Lecture slides.

Competition and monopoly..

• Textbook reading.
  • Print: pp. 243-300. You're not responsible for the analysis on pp. 277-281.
  • Online: Chapter 8 (Heyne, chapter 9, pp. 205-227).
  • Online: Chapter 9 (Hubbard, chapter 14, pp. 472-504). You're not responsible for the analysis on pp. 479-484
• Michael M. Grynbaul, "2 Taxi Medallions Sell for $1 Million Each," The New York Times, October 20, 2011.

• Suzanne Daley, "Push to End Job Barriers Rattles Greece and Economy," The New York Times, October 14, 2010.

• Joseph A. Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy. New York: Harper and Brothers, second edition, 1950, Chapters VI and VIII.
• Video: What Is a Monopoly? (N. B. you will need your MyEconLab ID and password.)
• Lecture slides.

  Pricing strategies and higher education.

• Textbook reading:
  • Print: pp. 302-328. You're not responsible for the analysis on pp. 308-309 and 314.
  • Online: Chapter 10 (Hubbard, Chapter 15), pp. 506-532. You're not responsible for the analysis on pp. 512-513 and 518.
• Gordon C. Winston, "Subsidies, Hierarchies, and Peers: The Awkward Economics of Higher Education," Journal of Economic Perspectives 13(1): 13-36 (Winter 1999).
• Caroline M.Hoxby, "The Changing Selectivity of American Colleges," National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series No. 15446 (October 2009).
• Judith Scott-Clayton, "College Is Cheaper Than You Think," The New York Times, November 4, 2011.
• Paul Fain, "At Public Universities: Less for More," The New York Times, October 26, 2009.
• Kate Zernike, "To Keep Students, Colleges Cut Anything but Aid," The New York Times, February 28, 2009.
• Video: The Economics of Higher Education. (N. B. you will need your MyEconLab ID and password.)
• Noam Cohen, "Don’t Buy That Textbook, Download It Free," The New York Times, September 14, 2008.

• Anne K. Walters, "New Laws on the Books: Many State Legislatures Are Passing Laws Designed to Help Students Save Money on Course Materials," The Chronicle of Higher Education 52(44): A35 (July 7, 2006).
  
• Robert Carbaugh and Koushik Ghosh, "Are College Textbooks Priced Fairly?" Challenge 48(5): 95-112 (September-October 2005).
• Lecture slides.

Externalities and public goods.

• Textbook reading.
  • Print: pp. 329-365 .
  • Online: Chapter 13 (Hubbard, Chapter 5).
• "Editorial: Consideration Vital to Avoid Annoying Effects of Free Laundry," The Daily Campus, November 2, 2010.
• Lydia Polgreen, "In Niger, Trees and Crops Turn Back the Desert," The New York Times, February 11, 2007. [Note the crucial but underplayed point that local farmers now have property rights in trees, which had previously been owned by the government of Niger (and were thus unowned in practice).]

• Link: Video.
• Link: The Ecological Role of IFQs in U.S. Fisheries.
• Link: The High Cost of Free Parking.
• Pierre Desrochers, "The Environmental Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits (by Creating Value within the Bounds of Private Property Rights)," Industrial and Corporate Change 19(1):161-204 (February 2010).
• Lecture slides.

 
Discounting, risk, and financial markets.

• Textbook reading.
  • Print: pp. 367-390.
  • Online: Chapter 14 (Parkin, Chapter 24).
• Video: The Ascent of Money Episode 1: From Bullion to Bubbles.
• Warren Buffet, "Buy American. I Am," The New York Times, October 16, 2008.
• Paul Sullivan, " Wealth Matters:  Index Funds, Dowdy to Some, Get a Notable Endorsement," The New York Times, February 06, 2010.
• Douglas J. Elliott and Martin Neil Baily, “Telling the Narrative of the Financial Crisis: Not Just a Housing Bubble.” Washington: Brookings Institution (23 November 2009).
  
• Lecture slides.

Measuring national income.

• Textbook reading.
  • Print: pp. 391-418.
  • Online: Chapter 15 (Hubbard, Chapter 19).
• Roger Bate, " What Is Prosperity and How Do We Measure It?" AEI Development Policy Outlook No. 3, October 2009.
• Arthur Herman, "The Ultimate Stimulus? World War Two and Economic Growth," The Weekly Standard, Vol. 16, No. 48, September 12, 2011.
  • Robert Higgs, "Wartime Prosperity? A Reassessment of the U.S. Economy in the 1940s," The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 52, No. 1 (Mar., 1992), pp. 41-60.
  • Podcast: Higgs on the New Deal and World War II.
• Lecture slides.

 Measuring the cost of living.

• Textbook reading.
  • Print: pp. 419-442.
  • Online: Chapter 16 (Bade/Parkin, Chapter 22).
• David Warsh, "Big Box Ecology," economic principles.com, February 19, 2006.
• Website: Measuringworth.com.
• Lecture slides.

 
Money and inflation.

• Textbook reading.
  • Print: pp. 443-494.
  • Online: Chapters 17 (Heyne, Chapter 14) and 18 (Parkin, Chapter 25).
• " U.S. Economy Grinds to Halt as Nation Realizes Money Just a Symbolic, Mutually Shared Illusion," The Onion, February 16, 2010.
• "A Bank That Lends You Goats," Press Trust of India, November 7, 2010.
• Lecture slides: Money and Banking.
• Lecture slides: Inflation.
• Hugh Rockoff, "The 'Wizard of Oz' as a Monetary Allegory," The Journal of Political Economy 98(4): 739-760 (August 1990).
• Milton Friedman, Free to Choose (PBS Series, 1980), "Episode 3: Anatomy of a Crisis."
• Milton Friedman, "A Natural Experiment in Monetary Policy Covering Three Episodes of Growth and Decline in the Economy and the Stock Market," Journal of Economic Perspectives 19(4): 145–150 (Fall 2005).
• Price Fishback, "What Do the New Deal and World War II Tell Us About the Prospects for a Stimulus Package?" The New York Times, November 21, 2008.
• Milton Friedman, Free to Choose (PBS Series, 1980), "Episode 9: How to Cure Inflation ."
• Warren Buffet, "The Greenback Effect," The New York Times, August 18, 2009.
• Rap Video: "Fear the Boom and Bust." (Explanation here.)
• John Taylor, "How Government Created the Financial Crisis," The Wall Street Journal, February 9. 2009.
  • Podcast: John Taylor on the Financial Crisis.

Exchange rates and the balance of trade.  

• Textbook reading.
  • Print: pp. 495-522.
  • Online: Chapter 19 (Parkin, Chapter 26).
• Christina D. Romer, "Needed: Plain Talk About the Dollar," The New York Times, May 21, 2011.
• Lecture slides.
• Link: "Dirk Nowitzki's 20,000 Points Not Worth Nearly As Much in European League."

Economic growth.

• Textbook reading.
  • Print: pp. 523-561.
  • Online: Chapter 20 (Hubbard, Chapter 22).
• Lecture slides.
• Link: Gapminder.
• Richard N. Langlois, “The Great Question,” Manuscript 2003. 
• Michael Cox and Richard Alm, "Time Well Spent," Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Annual Report 1997.
• Daron Acemoglu, "What Makes a Nation Rich? One Economist's Big Answer," Esquire, November 18, 2009.

• Hernando de Soto, "The Free Market Secret of the Arab Revolutions," The Financial Times, November 8, 2011.

• David Leonhardt, "Maybe Money Does Buy Happiness after All," The New York Times, April 16, 2008.
• Michael A. Fletcher, " An Upside for the Middle Class: Lost Amid the Stresses Are Gains in Standard of Living," Washington Post, February 28, 2008, Page D01.
• Brian Palmer, " How Rich Are Poor People?" Slate Magazine, September 14, 2011.
• David Leonhardt, “The Choice: A Longer Life or More Stuff,” The New York Times, September 27, 2006.
• Robert J. Gordon, "Misperceptions About the Magnitude and Timing of Changes in American Income Inequality," NBER Working Paper No. 15351, September 2009.
• Bruce D. Meyer and James X. Sullivan, "The Material Well-Being of the Poor and the Middle Class since 1980," AEI Working Paper #2011-04, October 25, 2011.