14.003/14.03  Microecon Theory & Public Policy

Good morning everyone,

I got stuck in Toronto last night with a cancelled flight, but now heading to Boston on the first morning flight. I should make it to MIT by 9.30 am if there are no further weather delays today. If the flight gets delayed then I will come in as soon as possible to host my last office hour.

Also, just to remind - the final exam is not in the usual classroom. Instead, I will see you today 1:30 to 4:30 PM in 50-340.

Best regards,
Sari

Hi everyone,

First, as today was the last class, I hope to still see many of you next week during office hours so I can say good bye and wish you good luck for all your future endeavors. After next week, you can stay in touch with me via LinkedIn and of course via email as well.

Second, I looked at the response rate for course evaluations and right now we are only at 31%. If you could kindly fill yours out while all comments and ideas are still fresh in your mind that would be greatly appreciated by me personally and by the whole 14.03 team. Thank you in advance...

Best wishes,
Sari

Good afternoon everyone,

Since Wednesday is our last class, I wanted to make sure to send out all relevant details regarding the final exam and other remaining items. The final exam will be on May 26 at 1.30 pm to 4.30 pm (next Friday), and it will be held in building 50 room 340 (in Walker, and NOT our usual classroom). The exam will cover materials from lecture 14 (Discrimination) to the last lecture (Immigration). It will thus not be cumulative, but we will assume that you will remember the causal inference materials from prior lectures. In other words, while the latest causal inference tool we added was regression discontinuity (RD), it would still be helpful to also remember the previous tools (e.g. the differences-in-differences method).

Note that the exam time is 3 hours, but the exam will be no longer than the previous 2 exams have been. So you should have plenty of time to complete it.

Next week we will have the usual office hours posted on the class Stellar site, but in addition I will be available to meet at MIT on Wednesday (10 am - noon) and Friday (9.30 am - 12.30 pm) to go over any last minute questions. I will post an old final exam on Stellar to practice on.

Finally, if you could kindly fill out the course evaluations it would be greatly appreciated by the whole team. I know the end of semester gets very busy for everyone, but any comments will help us to know what you liked and what we could improve on the next time.

Best regards,
Sari

Good morning everyone,

I just wanted to let you know that I will not be hosting office hours today, as I have to race out after lecture for two thesis defense exams at Wellesley. Please see Hongkai during his office hours for any problem set related questions. And if you specifically need to see me this week, please email for an appointment.

Today I will be teaching regression discontinuity using materials from the Angrist and Pischke textbook chapter. The lecture note does not cover RD very well, so I have posted the textbook chapter on Stella. If you cannot make the lecture today I would highly encourage reading how Angrist and Pischke explain RD. It is part of the last problem set and highly likely to also make its way to the final exam.

Best,
Sari