Pol S 270 Weekly Assignments

Here are the weekly assignments that you are responsible for in section.  These assignments are designed to get you thinking about politics and social life through the lens of microeconomics and to build your analytical thinking skills. Some of the assignments may seem a bit silly, but each has been tested rigorously to ensure that the maximum amount of learning will be crammed into your brain with the least amount of pain.  I encourage you to talk over these assignments with your fellow students, friends or family members.  Many of them will hopefully generate some great intellectual discussions -- discussions that will be engaging to people not enrolled in this class.  But remember, do not copy somebody else's answer.  That's plagiarism.

Please note that the due dates for these assignments may change according to how the course is progressing.  If anything, the due dates will be pushed back (i.e., later in the term) than brought forward.  I also reserve the right to cancel any of the assignments based on how the class is progressing, but I'm sure you don't mind that, eh?

Now due March 27.  An exercise to get you thinking analytically.  This assignment may not appear to be related to political economy, but it is.  The surreptitious lesson is that changing environmental constraints can lead to changes in behavior.  Don't tell anybody.

Due March 29.  Changing institutions and other constraints affects behavior. 

  This is the article to be used in conjunctions with Assignment 1b.

  Due April 5.  A real political example that is constantly in the news.  Like the previous assignment, changing rules (laws) affects the various cost-benefit calculations that individuals make.

Due April 12.  Yet another real life application of the theoretical material we are learning.  Important people in Washington DC will be doing this assignment at the same time you are!

  Due April 19.   This assignment will get you to think a bit deeper about the Anderson & Hill book.  I'm asking you to engage in a bit of role playing and solve a very common problem in the settlement of the west in the mid 1800s.  This assignment touches upon principal-agent and collective action problems.

  Due April 26.  This is an exercise on resource allocation that deals with the "tragedy of the commons," a subspecies of the collective action problem and one that occupies the minds of many political economists, including Anderson & Hill.

Assignments posted to this point.

Due ________.  A little practice with game theory using an example that has remained remarkably salient over the past several years I have used it.  This is the type of exercise that done constantly in the US Department of Defense and by other governments around the world.  (The title of the assignment is a play on a popular brand of tuna and the title of the button above is what my son calls chicken nuggets.)

  Due ________.  The last assignment brings this class full circle, allowing you to apply concepts we have used all quarter.