Blog Update

So... I received a request to make comments on articles more prominent -- (I replied to ben's post and wrote a little about my classes, etc).

The best I could do (quickly) was to add a Recent Comments section to the sidebar, which should alert you to new comments. You'll want to click on the timestamp associated with that comment. This will take you to the permanent link for the article said commenter replied to, and then you can scroll down to see the comments.

Of course, if you get here through your rss feed, you are automatically directed to the permalink, so the comments are there for you.

impressions from my first week

I realize that most of you have probably been in class for weeks, and are already knee-deep in theory, so you probably aren't interested in my thoughts on the first week here. Then again, you're probably to busy to read this, so I'm going to talk anyway.

The big overall surprise for me was just how much the faculty focuses on developing our economic intuitions. Apparently there's more too this economic stuff than a bunch of first order conditions. With one week down, I can say that in both micro and macro the majority of the emphasis has been on really interpreting what we're doing in an economic context. Metrics is another story, but let's stick with the first two for now.

Alvarez is teaching the first quarter of macro, and I think I can say that he is a very engaging teacher. He knows the material well, and can quickly field questions or explain things, but the real surprise was how he "sells" the concepts to us. The math is still there, but it's really refreshing to have the classes spent on developing good intuitions. Our first quarter is a quick crash course in GE theory, followed by simple OLG models, then uncertainty, then dynamics, and eventually working towards a stochastic dge growth model. Here's a link to the syllabus if you're interested: http://home.uchicago.edu/~falvare/syllabustheoryincome2006.pdf. The structure is a bit schizophrenic, but the idea is to push back some of the time series concepts until it complements with hansen's econometrics quarter. So far so good, but since we're doing GE right now, I find I'm needing to dust off the old intermediate micro textbook and remind myself about edgeworth boxes, and such.

Micro deserves an entire post. Becker and Murphy (and particularly Murphy) are amazing teachers. Again, I was surprised by how much they both focused on simple models and trying to force us to interpret the math. Although, as a side-note I wish they would frontload some more theorem/proof style lectures, just to thin the class out a bit. It turns out that this is one of the more popular courses here, so it's filled with law students, policy students, and a few ambitious undergraduates. The first day was a bit worrisome with some ridiculous questions, but the quality of class participation has actually improved drastically. I think it's nice to have a diversity of backgrounds, and I can honestly say that it may improve the class. That said, I don't want to have to arrive 15 minutes early just to get a seat.

Becker and Murphy are trading off on lectures, although from time-to-time they may team up, which is what they did on the first day. Watching the pair in action is really something. They both love what they teach, and it shows. Here's a link to the reading list http://home.uchicago.edu/~gbecker/econ301/Autumn%20Quarter%202006.pdf. So far we've really only done the very basics of defining an economy and a competitive equilibrium.

Econometrics, is well ... econometrics. The prof is very dilligent, and as far as I can tell it's pretty much a standard syllabus. http://home.uchicago.edu/~smschenn/econ310-fall06/syll06.pdf. (This one isn't linked to online) Both lectures are in one day, so it's a bit of an endurance test.

In non-economics world, I've been swimming and biking a fair amount, and hanging out with the other first years. We've got a really good class so far (26 is the final count). We'll see what happens when the pressure hits.

2nd year classes

Well, I'm starting the second year tomorrow, and I have to figure out all these elective classes to take. For those interested, I have to fulfill a) field requirements and b) distribution requirements. Fields are combinations of three different classes in a related topic. I have to take two fields by the end of the year, and then take a comprehensive test in one of the fields next summer. The tests are a lot less stressful than the core examinations I took last summer, but it's still pretty important. For distribution requirements, I have to take 3 classes in fields different from my chosen two, and the three have to be in separate fields themselves.

My choices are pretty limited, especially because there's only one field that I'm actively interested in, which is the labor field. While not interested in labor economics per se, it is a very good sequence with a lot of applied micro.

Aside from that field, though, I don't know what I'm doing. I may take a growth and trade field (macro), a public economics field (micro), or the econometrics field (metrics). So it's really a crap-shoot right now, which sucks a little because I have to commit pretty strongly to at least two of those this quarter and then decide by the beginning of classes next quarter which are my two fields, because that's the only way to get all three classes together and fulfill my distribution requirements at the same time.

At the moment, my class schedule is the following for the fall quarter:

- Price Theory II (Murphy), the first class of the labor sequence. Murphy is amazing, so this should be good.
- International Growth and Trade (Lucas), the first class of a macro sequence. I'm not really interested in this class, as it's the neoclassical growth model over and over and possibly over again, which is a little boring to me at this point. However, it's my only chance to have any exposure to Lucas, who I hear is pretty smart or something. Anyway, I'll probably stick with it.
- Public Sector Economics (Mulligan), is exactly what it sounds like. The course description makes it sound pretty interesting, but by all accounts Mulligan is very boring. I have to see it for a couple classes before I make my decision.
- Numerical Methods (Judd) is a class I'm auditing because I'm a nerd. This class is a must for macro people, as it teaches the essentials of various optimization/approximation/programming needed for a lot of macro models. I'm just sitting in because of my computer science background gives me a (very slight) comparative advanatage and because I'm interested in the topic.

The first week, I'll probably also go to an IO class and a business school econometrics class, and see if I like those as well. There's also a macro game theory class which sounds interesting as well, but the chances are slim I end up there.

April's National Intelligence Estimate

I hate to introduce politics into this forum, but I thought that, since most of you are undoubtedly consumed with schoolwork, you may not have time to keep up with current events.

The front page of today's (Sunday) Washington Post features an article describing a National Intelligence Estimate completed in April. Produced by the National Intelligence Council, NIEs are certainly non-partisan and are intended to reflect the opinions of current and former high-raking intelligence officials.

The Post article begins:

"The war in Iraq has become a primary recruitment vehicle for violent Islamic extremists, motivating a new generation of potential terrorists around the world whose numbers may be increasing faster than the United States and its allies can reduce the threat, U.S. intelligence analysts have concluded.

A 30-page National Intelligence Estimate completed in April cites the "centrality" of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and the insurgency that has followed, as the leading inspiration for new Islamic extremist networks and cells that are united by little more than an anti-Western agenda. It concludes that, rather than contributing to eventual victory in the global counterterrorism struggle, the situation in Iraq has worsened the U.S. position, according to officials familiar with the classified document."

The article dutifully points out that it was also a 2002 NIE which stated that Saddam Hussein '"continued its weapons of mass destruction [WMD] programs," possessed stockpiles of biological and chemical weapons and "probably will have a nuclear weapon during this decade."'

However, in 2004, the responsibility for producing NIEs was taken from the CIA and given to the broader intelligence community, so it seems reasonable that this April's is more reliable than previous estimates.

Bottom line: It is becoming more clear by the day that history will show President Bush and his supporters to be wrong in their fundamental convictions. It seems almost certain that the history of the next few years will show this.

If you have time for the full article, click here.


On another note, I HATE the GRE! Expect my entries from next year to be written on this blog in Seattle or Chapel Hill or Georgetown!

Lecture Notes

A quick hello. Things are getting pretty interesting here in MN, and I'm rather busy. But I wanted to make sure you've all seen this: Econ Lecture Notes. Turns out that most of the people who've written up comprehensive notes for Dynamic Macro are Minnesota people, but the micro and mathematical stuff is pretty useful as well. I'm also going to mention that Alvarez has some great macro notes on his Chicago site (I've found them useful at least).

Back to arrow-debreu equilibriums for now...
Best,
Ariel

Neuroeconomics

"Mind Games: What neuroeconomics tells us about money and the brain," The New Yorker

The dwindling lazy days of chi-town

It's a pretty dreary Tuesday afternoon here in Chicago, but the recent weather has been only a small spot on an otherwise incredible time here so far. Most of you will probably be already thinking about midterms by the time I actually start classes. I arrived a few weeks ago into a surprisingly nice apartment (this is a first for me), and I've been slowly getting into the swing of things.

We've had math camp over the last two weeks, and we'll be finishing up this Friday. It's probably not too much different from whatever you all were studying. I imagine we all need to know the same stuff. If anyone is interested, email me, and I can show you the syllabus, problems, notes, etc... I've found the review incredibly useful. Just having all the material presented in one continuous span, and more than anything else, having the same teacher explaining all the concepts, makes it much easier to see the connections between ideas and really get excited about the material. We'll see how much of this I retain when it comes down to doing proofs for micro, I suppose.

It's been a nice relaxed time to do math, meet the people in my program, and explore Chicago. I understand that there are 27 or 28 of us (the number seems to vary). Most of us are here for math camp, and among those that are we've got a pretty good cross section of the globe with just under 1/3 or so american. We' ve been making frequent pilgramages to the bar to--several encouraged and sponsored by our great math camp prof--to "learn about each other's cultures." Everyone is really friendly, and we're getting along well as a class. I've got high hopes.

I've managed to see a lot of Chicago by bike. There's a great trail that runs alongside lake michigan, and it's only an 8-mile ride or so to get downtown. Tomorrow night I'm hitting up a Cubs game with some people from my class, and I'm going to try out Wrigley's bike valet. Hopefully, I'll have a bike to ride home on.

Classes start on the 25th. Until then, it's sweet to be in Chicago.

Cheney interview

The Vice President appeared this morning on Tim Russert's show. He addressed many of the issues that we specifically and the American people generally have been wondering about over the past couple years.

Here is the link to the webcast:
http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?f=00&t=s53&g=e10461f
7-89e1-415c-aa58-80d1b6f8066e&p=hotvideo_m_edpicks

This cannot be viewed with Firefox; you need Internet Explorer.

And so it all begins...

Well, here goes nothin.

I don't know about the rest of you, but my classes start tomorrow. On the upside, I only really have classes on tuesday and thursday. On the downside, I am in class for ALL of tuesday and thursday. I'm not sure if this is good or bad, but I'm pretty sure that it means I'll need to be more disciplined on my own on MWF to get some real work done. I think it will be a nice way for me to spend one day trying P-Sets on my own, and another 2 in my study group, which is still developing.

I realized tonight, paying bills, that I just spent $500 on 6 books, and it's odd that one of the books I just purchased I probably could've just taken from the Fed last year (That would be Simon's copy of An Introduction to Classical Econometrics). I suppose it's a good thing that I've already read most of the book we're using for Econometrics. We shall see.

I am excited to get going, though I've seen my first Macro problem set, and it is appears to be a long, grueling data assignment meant to introduce students on how to find data. I never thought I'd say this, but I miss DLX already.

Mike, thanks for trying to keep this thing going. What's the deal with Sager? I've tried getting him involved, but to no avail -- is he just freaking out about NSFs? It's too early for that. I guess we've still not heard from Ted or Ben (who wrote me recently to say he was arriving in Chicago last week I believe) or Cartier, for that matter. Also, Mike, as a moderator of this blog, you can invite more people to sign up to post -- just look for it under the settings tab.

I hope to check in sometime at the end of next week when the dust has settled a bit.

Best to all,
Ariel

An "arms race" of hours

I like to read articles in the paper about social science research. I came across one today in the Post which is interesting.

"If employees are unhappy and overworked, and employers are having to pay more for unhappy employees, why does the situation persist in a rational economic marketplace?

Some economists, sociologists and psychologists say the paradox arises because of the changing nature of the workplace. In a growing number of professions, especially those that involve thinking and social skills, managers and owners find it difficult to measure the day-to-day performance of employees."

Click here for the full article. Again, nothing groundbreaking...