17.309/IDS.055/STS.082  Science, Technology, & Public Policy

Accessing journal articles via MIT Libraries

One of your classmates asked about accessing the readings for this Wednesday's lecture on the role of scientists. These are not on Stellar. However, as an MIT student, you have access to a quite broad selection of paywalled journal articles, including these readings.

Please carefully read this page from MIT Libraries: https://libraries.mit.edu/research-support/connect …in particular, the parts under “Current members of the MIT community”:

If you’re on-campus with an MIT IP address or on the “MIT Secure” network, you can go directly to most resources and the publisher will recognize your IP address.

For when you're not on campus, see the sections at the bottom under “To connect via MIT’s Touchstone.” (I personally prefer the browser bookmarklet.)

Combined with Google Scholar, you should be able to directly access all of the materials used in the course, and look up anything cited by those papers. The libraries also offer live chat technical support.

Announced on 27 November 2017  3:58  p.m. by Paul Natsuo Kishimoto

Correction on Announcement

Announced on 07 November 2017  9:28  a.m. by Kenneth A Oye

Midterm FAQ—30 October update

Q1. What are the components of a successful response to the essay question? (e.g., How should it be structured? Should it make reference to readings?)

• Make sure you answer the question! If it asks you to pick a position, pick a position. Answer all the parts. Mobilize the best arguments you can from the readings, from the lecture case studies, from your own research or life (both theories and the examples). We are looking for clearly structured prose, but if you run out of time, lay out your argument in outline form.
• Updated: There is no one correct answer to any questions that we are looking for.
• Don't drop a whole bunch of disconnected, unconnected sentences—aim for less “saturation bombing” than “precision-guided munitions.”
• We recognize that there are differing levels of English ability in the class. Minor grammatical and spelling issues won't affect the grading, so long as meaning and concepts are clear.

Q2. Is there a specific length you’re looking for in the long answer question?

No — as long as you answer all components of the question, with clear support for your arguments. You will likely allot about half of the midterm time to the essay question.

Q3. Should we address counterarguments?

Often it’s very useful to address and then dismiss counterarguments when making your case (especially if there’s an obvious one). Also see above on answering all components of the question — some ask you explicitly to address counterarguments.

Q4. What will a short answer question look like? What might they cover?

The syllabus questions are a better model for the short answer questions than the red slides. They focus on being able to articulate/define key concepts, and being able to provide specific examples.

Q5. How long should responses to short answer questions be?

Shorter than the essays — all 5 short answer questions together are weighted the same as the essay (divide that accordingly).

Q6. Do we need to know the names of authors?

If we use the name of the author a lot in the slides (e.g., “Stiglerian”) then it would be helpful if you could connect the name to the concept.

Q7. Case studies vs. larger themes and theories — how should we divide our focus in studying?

Think of case studies as providing examples and evidence of the larger themes and theories — we’re not going to test you on whether you understand all the elements of a particular case study, but we’re interested in what is relevant from that case study for the larger concept (though you should be factually correct).

UPDATED Q8. Should we focus on articulating our own opinion in the essay questions, or arguing from another perspective?

• You should make the argument for which you think you can most easily and convincingly mobilize theory and evidence in the allowed time—it doesn’t have to match up with your deep, innermost beliefs.
• Updated: In order to “convincingly mobilize of theory and evidence,” DO make claims and sub-claims that are carefully scoped and qualified, and present evidence that clearly supports each point. DO address potential counter-arguments seriously, rather than waving them away (echoes Q21). DON'T make overly broad claims, or fail to supply evidence (examples or references). Here's a fun source on what not to do; summary.

UPDATED Q9. About the final exam—is it comprehensive?

• Yes.
• Updated: How will it be weighted?
  The midterm is relatively lightly weighted at 10% of the course grade since—for some students—this will be the first social science exam you've ever taken. However, the final has a more normal weighting of 30%.

Q10. Can we type the short answer questions?

Yes — you can use your laptops as dumb word processors for the whole midterm.

Q11. How should we generalize from the cases?

Cases are used as examples and illustrations of concepts rather than in depth deep dives. When a set of cases are presented, think about how they relate to each other and how they illustrate theoretical tensions, or strengths/limitations of a policy approach.

Q12. Risk shielding?

We haven’t covered this in lecture yet — we’ll focus on this topic in recitation next week.

UPDATED Q13. Clarification on position C in essay pool question on “Antitrust”.

• “Theory doesn’t matter to me, I’m a realist and just care about acting in national interest. No need to be consistent — I’ll use whichever position best supports our interests!”
• Updated: Where is the line between “should” and “will/is”?
  To clarify position ‘C’ is not strictly a description of people who choose neither position ‘A’ nor ‘B’: there's a school of thought in political science that argues the duty of policymakers is to defend the national interest. There are also varieties of ‘enlightened’ nationalism; a globalist or globally-oriented nationalism.

Q14. What is a “rent”?

Here’s a more crisply articulated definition than the one we provided from CBS: «There are two definitions of economic rents -- a textbook definition, and a definition that prevails in more common usage. The textbook definition is straightforward. Suppose it would take $10 per hour to induce someone to work. If the wage were any lower, the person would prefer not to work at all. If he or she is paid $15 per hour, then the difference between what they are actually paid and what it takes to induce them to work ($15 - $10 = $5) is economic rent. It is any payment over and above the minimum payment needed to bring a factor of production -- labor, capital or land -- into productive use… But there is another more common usage of the term “rent” that explains the rise in inequality another way. This refers to any return over and above what would occur if a market were perfectly competitive. One example is monopoly power that occurs naturally or that is due to government action, such as requiring occupational licenses that restrict entry into a profession and increases profit above the competitive level.
More generally, the idea is that “rent-seeking behavior” by those with political power -- such as the wealthy -- will tilt the rules in their favor and allow them to capture a larger share of the economic pie. The ability to keep taxes relatively low for those at the top is one example of this.»

Q15. Most important readings?

Identifying most important readings would be a great exercise for you to do in groups as part of your studying. Pay attention both to core readings that cut across all lecture topics (e.g., political and institutional failure readings) as well as ones that identify and illustrate core concepts for each lecture topic (e.g., Akerloff for adverse selection).

Q16. What is “pork barrel?”

• Refers to “the use of government funds for projects designed to please voters or legislators and win votes.”
• We gave examples in the context of research funding: let’s say you have a piece of legislation that creates funding for a research institute—there are lots of positive externalities to investing in research, education, and innovation—all incentive to mobilize politically to get that funding for your constituents.
• For instance: why might MIT have a Washington DC office?
• Updated: “Pork provision” refers to the same thing. Click here for some etymology—in short, pork was preserved by salting and stored in barrels, so handing out such barrels was providing food to the public to win their favor.

Q17. Why do Heinzerling and Ackerman disagree with discounting future benefits?

(In the cases they discuss) costs tend to be incurred in the present or near term, and benefits are often in the future so structurally, if you discount future benefits, it is difficult for benefits to outweigh costs. (Even persistent long-term environmental risks or irreversible harms that are in the future will have low present value costs.) They also raise arguments about distribution of risks and future generations.

Q18. What is the relationship between VSL and CBA?

VSL can be used in a CBA, but it’s a separate concept.

NEW Q19: about the essay pool question on “Externalities”: should these be four essays, or continuously written?

• Continuous, but signify (“(A)”, “(B)” inline) where the parts appear. Note that parts B, C, and D should all refer to your chosen example, while A is more general. Use paragraphs appropriately.
• What are the “coalitions that would need to be assembled”?
  Many of the policy prescriptions that might be applied to externalities problems involve government doing something. In order for governments to choose to implement these policies, they must see that there is a broad support. Which groups, individuals, firms, organization, etc. might come together to back these policies? Are they likely to?

NEW Q20: what is Stigler's position? Does he contradict Olson?

• He's a Chicagoan whom we cite with favor. A crude caricature of the Chicao School position is “all regulation is bad,” but Stigler is more sophisticated. He points out that regulations are often devised in ways that provide some benefit for the parties who are being regulated; and those parties may act to get regulations that will do just that.
• For their relative ability to succeed at this, consider Mancur Olson and the logic of collective action.
• An example from class is General Electric supporting climate policy: strong deployments of variable, renewable electricity means more need for gas turbines to balance supply and demand. GE makes the best turbines, so pro-renewables policy would boost them in the market.
• Stigler and Olson don't contradict, but they play off one another in intellectually stimulating ways that are helpful to consider.

NEW Q21: about the essay pool question on “Risk Shielding.”

• Per “take care to anticipate and counter,” don't pretend that all the evidence cuts one way.
• The bonus is not needed if you do a great job on the basic prompt. If you choose to do it, append it to the base essay. The basic idea here is that many of the protections to shield against risk resemble insurance and so—as Shavell suggests of insurance—raise moral hazard issues.

NEW Q22: do we need to choose consistent positions across the short and long-answer questions?

No.

NEW Q23: what do the instructions mean about “principled disagreement”?

Sometimes students take strong objection to the way one of the prompts is phrased; they argue compellingly that there is some critical issue overlooked. These responses are interesting. What we do not want is for you to restate the questions in a bland, trivial way that has a simple, automatic, and uninteresting answer.

Announced on 27 October 2017  4:00  p.m. by Paul Natsuo Kishimoto

Faculty Profile of Noelle Selin

Announced on 23 October 2017  9:51  a.m. by Kenneth A Oye

Monday - Reading on "Platform Models and Internet Regulation"

Announced on 20 October 2017  9:15  a.m. by Kenneth A Oye