Stellar Course Management System

Exam 3 Ready to be Picked Up

Your exam3 are now ready for you to pick up. They are placed in two cardboard boxes on the floor next to Denise MacDougall's desk in room E52-352 (same place where you turned in your PSets). Exams are sorted alphabetically by last name, with A-O in one box and P-Z in another. The boxes will be there for about two weeks. After that, we will assume that you don't want your exam3 back and will dispose them accordingly.

FYI, here are some summary statistics for exam3:
Mean 78.6
25% 71.5
Median 81
75% 85.5
Max 98
Min 40
Please note that since most of you did well in the final, no curve or adjustment was made to the score.

Announced on 30 May 2006  4:12  p.m. by Hui Shan

Reading List for Final Exam

Here are the readings we covered in class and recitations since exam 2.

1. Ashenfelter-Greenstone (speed limit and VSL)
2. MacLean (social values and distribution of risk)
3. Newman et al (child restraint system on airplanes)
4. Akerlof (lemons)
5. Rothschild-Stiglitz (economics of information)
6. Hsieh-Moretti (real estate industry)

Announced on 17 May 2006  5:21  p.m. by Hui Shan

How much is a nickel worth?

14.03's own David Meyer has pointed out that the spot price for the materials in a nickel exceed the financial value of the coin itself. Here are some interesting websites:

1) http://www.nickelcrash.com/
2) http://www.pennycrash.com/
3) http://www.coinflation.com/
4) http://www.kitcometals.com/
5) http://www.usatoday.com/money/2006-05-09-penny-usat_x.htm

Now nickelcrash.com claims that the Mint will stop making the nickel if the material prices go above five cents. Is this necessarily true for a governmental organization? What is the marginal benefit of a nickel?

Announced on 10 May 2006  12:02  p.m. by Stephen Ryan

Final Exam and Friday

For Friday, we will be covering Rothschild and Stiglitz, which is under the information readings.

The final exam will strongly emphasize the material covered in the third section of the class, but there will be some general questions about material covered earlier on (you should expect these to be of the short answer variety; e.g. how does the difference-in-differences technique work?). Imagine the first and second midterm with a few extra short answer questions, and that is what I am going to aim for with the final.

Announced on 10 May 2006  11:52  a.m. by Stephen Ryan

Reading for Wednesday

Please read Hsieh and Moretti's JPE article under "Inefficient Free Entry" for Wednesday. This article discusses the inefficiency of free entry into real estate markets.

Announced on 08 May 2006  8:27  a.m. by Stephen Ryan