Category Teaching
A suggestion for complicating the simple aggregate production function (bleg)
I wrote this post. Then I realised it was wrong. I really wish my math were better. So I'm turning it into a sort of bleg. I should have written the technology in implicit form as F(C,I,K,L)=0 rather than H(C,I)=F(K,L). Because the way I wrote it makes Pk depend only on I/C, when it should […]
The depressing job of grading exams
I have a very good job, and I'm well paid to do it. The only part of my job I don't like is grading exams. I have just finished grading 30 exams for my graduate course and 300 exams for my first year course.
Technology, preferences, and wages; kinks and curves, Moseley and Krugman.
Look at the red curve PF1 and the blue curve PF2 in this picture. Ignore everything else: That's the picture Paul Krugman drew, showing how a capital-biased change in technology would shift the production function.
Four MC curves and two PPFs
Just another "Teaching" post. Because it's needed. (Though I have never taught micro beyond first year.) Marginal Cost means the change in Total Cost per extra unit of output. MC=dTC/dQ. (Not to be confused with Average Cost, which is the level of Total Cost divided by the level of output. AC=TC/Q.) Do MC curves slope […]
Elasticity, slope, scale, and collusion
Every year I teach "elasticity". And every year the students ask "Why not talk about "slope" instead?". They are familiar with "slope", but "elasticity" is a new concept. Why do we teach a new concept, if an old familiar concept would do just as well? [For non-economists: the slope of a demand curve is the […]
Advice for new Teaching Assistants
This is based on a short talk I have given several times to new TAs (mostly new graduate students) at Carleton. It's very basic. I think it should work for most subjects, not just economics. (Though maybe not as well for science and engineering where TAs run labs?). I think it should work for most […]
The dubious value of doctors’ notes
Students get sick around exam time. Cold, damp weather, combined with lack of sleep, poor diet, and stress, is a recipe for illness. I’m sure that the students who woke up last week and thought, “I don’t feel well enough to write a midterm exam today” truly didn’t feel very well. But what degree of […]
How to manipulate student grades
There are times when a professor wishes to raise or lower his or her students' grades. Perhaps a directive has come down from on high: "Instructors need to focus on increasing student success rates." "The average grade in this class is above the departmental norm – grades must come down." Or a professor might wish to maximize teaching […]
Incorporating behavioural economics into intermediate micro
Behavioural economics is fun. It starts off with anecdotes, experiments, and simple generalizations about people's behaviour. People are averse to losses, they go with the default option, and are overconfident. Behavioural economists give fun quizzes. Intermediate microeconomics, on the other hand, is hard. It begins with abstract concepts such as indifference curves and production functions. […]
Is “Y=C+I” a PPF?
I'm thinking about the best way to teach the investment demand curve in the "classical" (flexible price and wage) macroeconomic model. I don't like the way it's normally done. This post is an experiment, where I'm trying to come up with a better way. I'm not sure if I have succeeded yet, so if you […]
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
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