assgf3

It needs to be said: OP no good.

Greg Mankiw's Blog: Home for the Holidays

Cool, thanks ZBG. Is anyone else foregoing the application cycle and applying for RA positions instead?

For individuals graduating in May or June 2012, when is the optimal time to apply for research assistant positions upon graduation? Now? January? February? Does it depend on the job? How about for Federal Reserve banks? Thanks guys...and good luck with the application cycle.

I think OP uses "normalize" to mean force the welfare distribution to approach a normal distribution. If so, I think there are interesting moral questions to answer as to whether this is preferable. It is certainly not pareto efficient. Anyway, on to two (and as a response to zomg), I highly doubt that 100% income tax or "serious" government intervention is the optimal solution. Wealth stock is dynamic and either of these would force the wealth stock to plummet. Moreover, substantial transaction costs will eat away at the available stock of wealth. Better instead to structure institutions to incentivize entrepreneurship and wealth creation and human capital investments, along with a minimal level of public assistance. There is a lot of focus among leftists on the "market failure" roots of poverty; these individuals ignore that "government failure" is often just as strong a force. If the rightsizing of government and the creation and refinement of appropriate institutions is pursued, "poverty" - by which I mean the condition of being unable to meet certain basic needs like food, clothing, shelter, etc... - will decrease naturally. The trend of history suggests that the poor are getting richer in two ways. First, the relative expenditures on basic needs has been plummeting: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_otfwl2zc6Qc/TC9NcrJvG0I/AAAAAAAAN3Y/S8hwBzi_3uk/s1600/food.jpg. Second, quality increases in goods and services almost consistently amount to "real" wealth improvements for each successive generation of impoverished.

Elliephant.

Which math courses are absolutely essential prerequisites for the average adv micro/macro course? Which math courses are recommended prerequisites?

John Lott - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ... and that only covers half of it.

1.) If I'm not mistaken, the OP is already in a masters program and is, presumably, nearing completion of said program. To do another masters program seems absurd. 2.) I wonder if the OP would consider a different kind of phd program. Perhaps Public Policy? 3.) Don't despair too much. A world that allows John Lott to continue to research is likely a world in which there is some place for you as an academic as well.

Ditto on stata, matlab and latex (!)

Happy New Years, all. Any relevant resolutions?

lol, I really hope this is a joke. ... If it isn't, start changing your career plans now, because you're never going to get in anywhere now.

.... :-O ... That's my university.... I just looked this guy up. I am so very curious to know whose name he put on that letter. Our department is fairly small and fairly tight. If the professor whose name was forged is tenured or tenure-track, then I can all but guarantee that our entire department will know soon enough if they don't already. From there, I wouldn't be surprised if your other letter writers contacted the universities for which they wrote recommendations and withdrew their support. It's not certain that they will do so, but I would counsel the OP to start preparing a new career plan. Yikes. Good detective work, SlowLearner.

I like stats more than formal math. Did any of you have similar tipping points for statistics?

Only some? Not most?

Obviously, there are different types of reading you'll be doing for which you'll need to develop distinct techniques. I recommend the following blog post for advice on skimming journal articles: How to Read an Academic Article « Organizations and Markets

the 25k can almost certainly be significantly negotiated down.

What williamson calls 'institutional environment' = macro what williamson calls 'institutional arrangements' = micro

As trite as this may seem, I am grateful for this web community and all the knowledge that all of you share. Enjoy your day, all.

A bottle of fine scotch.

sticky.

Skim the intro book. That's all you'll need.

Ellipehant: I am currently coauthoring a paper on ballot initiative elections with an econ professor that works on political economy questions. We will likely publish in a political science journal. Per my understanding, this is still impressive because it was coauthored with an economist and it is being written "as an economist would" and not "as a political scientist would". Are you coauthoring? If so, the signal is still strong because an economist will be able to vouch for you. If you aren't coauthoring, I think the signal you send is still meaningful. Sure, publishing in American Political Science Review (top journal) is not as useful as publishing in QJE...but it can still signal sound research ability, and strong communication and analytical skills. I also think that the wedge between the value of the signal if published in an econ journal vs the value of the signal in a journal of some other field narrows with the prestige of the journal. If you publish in a top polisci journal...great. If you publish in a third-tier sociology journal...well, that's not so useful.

My List: Marginal Revolution (Tyler Cowen is a master of the form). The rest of the GMU guys truth on the market Mankiw Freakonomics Mccardle Organizations and Markets

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Dixit: Games of Strategy. Has anyone read Cowen's intro book? If so, how does it compare to mankiw's?