Selected Handouts 270

Selected Handouts and other Fun, Fun Things

Handouts to Facilitate Note-Taking

Here are links to handouts that will help you take notes in class. They are not a substitute for attending lectures and/or sections. Rather, they represent some basic charts or graphs that Prof. Gill will make reference to. While the temptation may be great, please don't download stuff before we get to it in class. There are a few "spoilers" that may be revealed in these handouts. We don't want to ruin Prof. Gill's fun, fun surprises in class, now do we?

Download this for the first week of lecture. It will help you take notes. You won't have to draw the charts in class for yourself.

The op-ed on the price of peanuts handed out the first day of class.

Paradox of not voting charts.

Here is an article summarizing the economics of (not) voting better than anything Dr. T could ever do. Its by Steven E. Landsburg, one of my favorite economists (because he's fun). Skim some of his other articles - they are very thought provoking. (Warning: Your thought will be provoked.)

Don't want to draw PD game grids? Here are some handouts to facilitate note taking, including prisoners' dilemma, chicken and assurance games. Please note that they will appear on your screen sideways. I recommend that you rotate your monitor 90 degrees clockwise for best viewing. <insert sideways smiley here>

The Robert Bates' book talks about overvalued currencies as a policy lever (combined with selective import tariffs) to African governments trying to industrialize. Here is a primer that helps to explain a little bit about overvaluation. It doesn't explain everything about overvaluation, but the discussion here is framed in terms of the typical process of overvaluation that plagued (and still plagues) several developing nations in the 1960s and '70s.

Interesting Supplementary Articles

If you are interested in some of the articles, chapters or lecture themes, you will like the following articles and websites. Note: Some of the links may be outdated and inoperative. If you happen to run across anything on the web that we are talking about in class, please send me an email with the link.

Larry Iannaccone -- the guy who wrote the religion and economics chapter in the Tommasi & Ierulli book -- hits the big time in Slate magazine. This article summarizes Larry's argument that "sacrifice and stigma" can help enhance collective action. Worth a look! (The link to the organization on "economics and religion" that Larry founded can be found here.)

The first day of class we discussed peanut subsidies. Here is another food crop that benefits from the same type of program. So, if you put blueberry jam on your peanut butter sandwich, think of political economy.

Bruce Wayne is fond of reminding us that crime doesn't pay. Well... here is an article that might give superheroes and evil geniuses something to consider. This piece augments the Friedman chapter in The New Economics of Human Behavior. If you plan to go on to law school, you might want to take a gander at this article.

Here is an interesting article on the presidential primaries that dovetails with the Hirschleifer article on informational cascades. While the article tends more towards a psychological explanation of cascading, one could easily translate Hirschleifer's insights to explain the importance of winning the first few primaries.

"If you took away the huge declines in crime, violence, and risky behaviors since the early 1990s, the picture for America's children would be bleak," said Kenneth Land, a sociologist at Duke University who developed the report. "U.S. Child Obesity Dragging Down Overall Gains." Reuters News Service. 10 March 2005.