I put the scores of the final and your course grade in Moodle. I will post the grades in Banner later today.
One point on the economics. You cannot be captured by your boss. You can be captured by the client. Likewise, Congress can't be captured by the American people. It can be captured by special interests. I perhaps didn't explain that well so I didn't punish anyone in the grading for saying that. If you ever discuss these ideas outside our class, I hope you do so properly.
Happy Holidays to each of you.
Showing posts with label 06-Misc. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 06-Misc. Show all posts
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Some Reading For After the Course Concludes
Here is a brief annotated list of things you might look at. Only the last one is specifically economics.
1. Finish reading B&D. It is a good and interesting book. The second half is on leadership, which we didn't mention at all. Perhaps we should have spent more time on other parts of the book than Chapter 8. Particularly, the parts on politics and on the symbolic frame are interesting and perhaps things outside your current experience.
2. Schon The Reflective Practitioner - I think of teaching as reflective practice. Nobody mentioned this in their comments but the blogging could very well have been about things after we covered them in class. Your learning should be reflective practice too. Sometimes this is called metacognition.
3. NAS How People Learn - The first few chapters are very useful, particularly the one on the expert-novice distinction and the next one on transfer.
4. Ericsson et. al. The Role of Deliberate Practice - The issue of why some people plateau while others keep on learning has to do with deliberate practice, which means on an ongoing basis trying things that are a little bit out of reach but not totally impossible. It takes a lot of determination to do that or it takes turning the activity into something fun so you persist at it.
5. Herbert Simon's Nobel Lecture - While this essay was mentioned in the Syllabus at the outset, we didn't spend any time on it. Now you may be ready to appreciate the ideas that are in it.
6. Alchian and Demzetz on Economic Organization - This is the definitive piece on the firm as arising from team production and the need for a "residual claimant" to address the monitoring and incentive issues. This is a scholarly paper published in the American Economic Review, one of the very top journals. But there is no math. You might find the writing style a bit hard at first because they are writing for academics, not a general audience.
1. Finish reading B&D. It is a good and interesting book. The second half is on leadership, which we didn't mention at all. Perhaps we should have spent more time on other parts of the book than Chapter 8. Particularly, the parts on politics and on the symbolic frame are interesting and perhaps things outside your current experience.
2. Schon The Reflective Practitioner - I think of teaching as reflective practice. Nobody mentioned this in their comments but the blogging could very well have been about things after we covered them in class. Your learning should be reflective practice too. Sometimes this is called metacognition.
3. NAS How People Learn - The first few chapters are very useful, particularly the one on the expert-novice distinction and the next one on transfer.
4. Ericsson et. al. The Role of Deliberate Practice - The issue of why some people plateau while others keep on learning has to do with deliberate practice, which means on an ongoing basis trying things that are a little bit out of reach but not totally impossible. It takes a lot of determination to do that or it takes turning the activity into something fun so you persist at it.
5. Herbert Simon's Nobel Lecture - While this essay was mentioned in the Syllabus at the outset, we didn't spend any time on it. Now you may be ready to appreciate the ideas that are in it.
6. Alchian and Demzetz on Economic Organization - This is the definitive piece on the firm as arising from team production and the need for a "residual claimant" to address the monitoring and incentive issues. This is a scholarly paper published in the American Economic Review, one of the very top journals. But there is no math. You might find the writing style a bit hard at first because they are writing for academics, not a general audience.
Blog Post Grades And Comments Uploaded
You should now be able to see grades for Blog Posts 2 as well as comments on those. In the process of trying to import those grades from my computer to Moodle, I discovered that the comments didn't import well at all. So I did those manually. I have also redone the comments for Blog Posts 1, since those too didn't import well. I'm very sorry about that. I'm sure it would have been useful to you to get the full comments earlier. I didn't realize the problem until this afternoon.
Sunday, December 9, 2012
Candidate Essay Questions For Final
There will be six candidate questions below and three will be chosen from the six. Two are new to you. You haven't seen them before and are on the last portion of the course. The other four you have seen. These are the unassigned candidate questions from Midterm 1 and Midterm 2.
-----
The New Questions:
A. This concerns turnover, quite possibly efficient, in the setting of the repeated Prisoner's Dilemma. One example can be seen in major college sports where the players have 4 years of eligibility. They can play at most 4 years after which new players take their place. For the very best players, who have the potential to play professionally, they may face a choice of foregoing a year or two of their college eligibility and turning pro early. Consider this from the perspective of the coach. Having such an excellent player on the roster increases the likelihood that the coach's team will win its games. Discuss the incentives for the coach in advising the player to turn pro or not and in utilizing the player to showcase his skills in game situations to pro scouts. Does the coach try to retain the player in making these decisions? Why or why not?
Now consider a similar situation of how upper level management considers the professional development of rising middle management. It is not unusual for middle management members to attend formal education aimed at executives, such as an Executive MBA program. We think of such formal education as providing "general human capital." Thus the education raises the productivity with the current employer but also increases the value of the employees outside option. What criteria will upper level management use for selecting candidates for such formal education? Will they be reluctant to send the very best middle managers to such programs for fear that they will lose these good personnel to other companies? Why or why not?
B. This question concerns innovative practice in the the setting of the repeated Prisoner's Dilemma. Employees with some responsibility allocated to them may be quite diligent in doing their established work, so shirking per se is not an issue at all, but they may be very reluctant to try out new approaches for fear of being blamed when an experiment along those lines blows up in their faces. There are various possible solutions to this issue:
(i) provide large rewards for experiments that succeed,
(ii) pool experiments across several employees each with some responsibility so responsibility is shared,
(iii) punish work groups if they don't show innovation over time.
(iv) possibly other mechanisms that might occur to you.
Discuss the pros and cons of each of these and discuss how the organization might come to a particular approach in trying to encourage organization members to be innovative.
------
Candidate Questions from Midterm 1
C. This question concerns transfer prices. Provide a working definition for what a transfer price is. In a for-profit organization how should ownership (shareholders) want the transfer price to be set? Explain why others in the organization might want the transfer price to be set differently. What transfer price would these others like to see? When service quality is jointly set with the transfer price, what service quality would ownership like to see? Explain why this is the case. Others may want a different service quality level. Explain how their preferred service quality level differs from what ownership wants.
D. This question concerns economic efficiency concepts. There is a partial equilibrium concept and a general equilibrium concept. Describe each of these. Do the two concepts always coincide? If not, under what additional assumptions do they coincide. Provide an argument for why we should expect efficient outcomes. Economic efficiency has been critiqued on several grounds. Explain some of these criticisms and provide settings where the particular critique appears valid.
---------
Candidate Questions from Midterm 2
E. This question concerns procurement. Discus why in government agencies procurement is subject to regulation. What is the regulation aimed at preventing? What does it try to accomplish? Explain why during the bidding process the lowest price bidder may not be selected, although the process is competitive. Discuss the various goals the agency conducting the procurement may have going into the process.
F. This question concerns an agent who while performing the same function serves two different principals. What are some examples where this situation emerges? What problems are created that don't exist in the case where there is a single principal? Explain what "capture" means and how it arises in this context. What might be done to discourage capture?
-----
The New Questions:
A. This concerns turnover, quite possibly efficient, in the setting of the repeated Prisoner's Dilemma. One example can be seen in major college sports where the players have 4 years of eligibility. They can play at most 4 years after which new players take their place. For the very best players, who have the potential to play professionally, they may face a choice of foregoing a year or two of their college eligibility and turning pro early. Consider this from the perspective of the coach. Having such an excellent player on the roster increases the likelihood that the coach's team will win its games. Discuss the incentives for the coach in advising the player to turn pro or not and in utilizing the player to showcase his skills in game situations to pro scouts. Does the coach try to retain the player in making these decisions? Why or why not?
Now consider a similar situation of how upper level management considers the professional development of rising middle management. It is not unusual for middle management members to attend formal education aimed at executives, such as an Executive MBA program. We think of such formal education as providing "general human capital." Thus the education raises the productivity with the current employer but also increases the value of the employees outside option. What criteria will upper level management use for selecting candidates for such formal education? Will they be reluctant to send the very best middle managers to such programs for fear that they will lose these good personnel to other companies? Why or why not?
B. This question concerns innovative practice in the the setting of the repeated Prisoner's Dilemma. Employees with some responsibility allocated to them may be quite diligent in doing their established work, so shirking per se is not an issue at all, but they may be very reluctant to try out new approaches for fear of being blamed when an experiment along those lines blows up in their faces. There are various possible solutions to this issue:
(i) provide large rewards for experiments that succeed,
(ii) pool experiments across several employees each with some responsibility so responsibility is shared,
(iii) punish work groups if they don't show innovation over time.
(iv) possibly other mechanisms that might occur to you.
Discuss the pros and cons of each of these and discuss how the organization might come to a particular approach in trying to encourage organization members to be innovative.
------
Candidate Questions from Midterm 1
C. This question concerns transfer prices. Provide a working definition for what a transfer price is. In a for-profit organization how should ownership (shareholders) want the transfer price to be set? Explain why others in the organization might want the transfer price to be set differently. What transfer price would these others like to see? When service quality is jointly set with the transfer price, what service quality would ownership like to see? Explain why this is the case. Others may want a different service quality level. Explain how their preferred service quality level differs from what ownership wants.
D. This question concerns economic efficiency concepts. There is a partial equilibrium concept and a general equilibrium concept. Describe each of these. Do the two concepts always coincide? If not, under what additional assumptions do they coincide. Provide an argument for why we should expect efficient outcomes. Economic efficiency has been critiqued on several grounds. Explain some of these criticisms and provide settings where the particular critique appears valid.
---------
Candidate Questions from Midterm 2
E. This question concerns procurement. Discus why in government agencies procurement is subject to regulation. What is the regulation aimed at preventing? What does it try to accomplish? Explain why during the bidding process the lowest price bidder may not be selected, although the process is competitive. Discuss the various goals the agency conducting the procurement may have going into the process.
F. This question concerns an agent who while performing the same function serves two different principals. What are some examples where this situation emerges? What problems are created that don't exist in the case where there is a single principal? Explain what "capture" means and how it arises in this context. What might be done to discourage capture?
Monday, December 3, 2012
About the Final Exam
I mentioned in class today that the final will be a different format than the midterms. It will be an all essay test. There will be no math-like problems as on the midterms. The essay questions may cover topics we have math modeled, but they will ask for a discussion of the issues, not derivation of a bunch of equations.
As has been the practice, I will make the candidate questions known ahead of time. There will be between six and eight candidate questions. Three will be chosen. You can count on one of those being on content covering the reputations and dynamic incentives, since you haven't been tested on that yet. The other questions can come from material done earlier in the semester.
The Final is worth 300 points, yet I'm only having three essay questions, not six of them. This is so I can grade the thing in a reasonable time frame. So each essay will be worth 100 points. This doesn't mean you have to write twice as much as you wrote on the midterms. It does mean I will be a little sterner grading the essays on the final. For those who did attend class today, it means you have to light the match with your essay, not simply pour the gasoline.
As has been the practice, I will make the candidate questions known ahead of time. There will be between six and eight candidate questions. Three will be chosen. You can count on one of those being on content covering the reputations and dynamic incentives, since you haven't been tested on that yet. The other questions can come from material done earlier in the semester.
The Final is worth 300 points, yet I'm only having three essay questions, not six of them. This is so I can grade the thing in a reasonable time frame. So each essay will be worth 100 points. This doesn't mean you have to write twice as much as you wrote on the midterms. It does mean I will be a little sterner grading the essays on the final. For those who did attend class today, it means you have to light the match with your essay, not simply pour the gasoline.
For this Wednesday's class
We will begin talking about Prisoner's Dilemma - the repeated version. I've written up some notes on that. I would be good for you to read those through before class. Then depending on how much time is left we'll start talking about Efficiency Wages a la Shapiro and Stiglitz. I will make reference to the acutal paper, Equilibrium Unemployment as a Worker Discipline Device, instead of using M&R's discussion of the paper. (Note to access the actual paper from off campus you need to use the Campus VPN.) I have written up some notes on that paper too, in an attempt to cast it in a similar framework to the Prisoner's dilemma stuff and my prior essay on the economics of time.
I want to also clarify a point I made in class today about earning an economic rent in teaching the course. In a typical market the marginal seller earns no economic rent and just receives his or her opportunity cost. Sellers with lower opportunity cost are termed inframarginal sellers. They earn rents. So in normal market it is not that there are no economic rents. It is only that the marginal seller doesn't get any.
In the Shapiro and Stiglitz paper, all the workers are identical except that some are employed and others are unemployed. The employed workers do strictly better than the unemployed ones. So the employment workers get an economic rent and the unemployed workers are "involuntarily" unemployed. That is not how we think normal markets work, but it is why unemployment can serve as a discipline device.
I want to also clarify a point I made in class today about earning an economic rent in teaching the course. In a typical market the marginal seller earns no economic rent and just receives his or her opportunity cost. Sellers with lower opportunity cost are termed inframarginal sellers. They earn rents. So in normal market it is not that there are no economic rents. It is only that the marginal seller doesn't get any.
In the Shapiro and Stiglitz paper, all the workers are identical except that some are employed and others are unemployed. The employed workers do strictly better than the unemployed ones. So the employment workers get an economic rent and the unemployed workers are "involuntarily" unemployed. That is not how we think normal markets work, but it is why unemployment can serve as a discipline device.
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Upcoming Class Activities Sidebar Items Broken
The gadget for Blogger that I use for the upcoming class activities seems to be broken and Google recommends removing it from the blog. So I did that. You will instead have to go to the Class Calendar Tab to see the upcoming items. I am sorry for the inconvenience.
Prof. Arvan
Prof. Arvan
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Next two class sessions
Tomorrow we will start talking about moral hazard, the principal-agent problem as exemplar of moral hazard, and do so to get concepts out there and real examples considered. I plan to avoid using a PowerPoint in this session so we can get more interaction in class.
On Wednesday we'll do the math of the principal-agent problem in chapter six in M&R, introducing that with the insurance model, and moving from there. We'll also do the S&L example from the book and talk about bank moral hazard in the presence of deposit insurance. (The same sort of moral hazard may be present in a takeover financed by "junk bonds.") We'll also do a brief discussion of the S&L crisis of the late 1980s and ask the question - why did history repeat only much worse in the financial markets in the 2000s.
I will use a PowerPoint for the Wednesday class so you can see the equations and work through the algebra. I will not be giving out an Excel homework - it simply takes too long to write so there is some expediency in this approach.
I will guarantee now that something on Moral Hazard will be present on Midterm 2, so I hope you take this seriously in spite of the lack of Excel homework.
On Wednesday we'll do the math of the principal-agent problem in chapter six in M&R, introducing that with the insurance model, and moving from there. We'll also do the S&L example from the book and talk about bank moral hazard in the presence of deposit insurance. (The same sort of moral hazard may be present in a takeover financed by "junk bonds.") We'll also do a brief discussion of the S&L crisis of the late 1980s and ask the question - why did history repeat only much worse in the financial markets in the 2000s.
I will use a PowerPoint for the Wednesday class so you can see the equations and work through the algebra. I will not be giving out an Excel homework - it simply takes too long to write so there is some expediency in this approach.
I will guarantee now that something on Moral Hazard will be present on Midterm 2, so I hope you take this seriously in spite of the lack of Excel homework.
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Monday, November 5, 2012
Bargaining Homework
The Excel homework on Bargaining is now available. The one short cut I took in making this is that the graphs are just there. They are not dynamically generated as you answer the questions, as in the previous homeworks. I thought it more important to get the thing up than to have this bit of slickness.
As you can tell from this post I am home and very happy to be here. I will see you in class on Wednesday. Please get the homework done before then.
As you can tell from this post I am home and very happy to be here. I will see you in class on Wednesday. Please get the homework done before then.
Sunday, November 4, 2012
No class tomorrow (Monday). Class on Wednesday.
I am going home tomorrow, though I am not sure when. So I am canceling class for that reason. There will be class on Wednesday. The topic will be bargaining and procurement. If time permits we'll also begin our discussion of moral hazard from an informal/intuitive vantage. Though this is not a course document, I encourage you to read today this post, The Diffeq from Hell, http://lanny-on-learn-tech.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-diffeq-from-hell.html?m=1, which is about the making of the Excel homework on Bargaining. I will commit here to have that homework up and available by tomorrow evening. I hope that you can get it done before class on Wednesday. I realize that is a short turnover. But under the circumstances, that is what makes sense so we can get back on track.
The procedure I had today went well and my prognosis is good. They got to this thing early enough that I believe things will be under control from here on out. It was quite a scare last week but now it is time for optimism.
My attire in class likely will change as a consequence --- casual casual instead of business casual. I'll explain why on Wednesday. Maybe some of you will respond by dressing up so the mean attire level in the room remains unaltered. ;-) And if there is candy left over I'll bring it then.
Prof. Arvan
The procedure I had today went well and my prognosis is good. They got to this thing early enough that I believe things will be under control from here on out. It was quite a scare last week but now it is time for optimism.
My attire in class likely will change as a consequence --- casual casual instead of business casual. I'll explain why on Wednesday. Maybe some of you will respond by dressing up so the mean attire level in the room remains unaltered. ;-) And if there is candy left over I'll bring it then.
Prof. Arvan
Friday, November 2, 2012
Update
First, let me apologize to the class for the cloud of uncertainty the situation with my shoulder has created in addition to the already missed classes. Here is what I know now about my health. But before that a word on my technology capabilities from the hospital.
I can post messages like this one (obviously) but I can' do it for a long time, because I'm connected to a bunch of wires and it is awkward to do.I don't have access to Excel here. So I can't finish and then post the now infamous homework on bargaining. Nor can I post the grades from midterm1 and from the first half of your blog posts. All of that can be taken care of, I hope in short order, once I return home.
I have an infection under my skin but so far above the shoulder. So it is bad, but it would be worse if it were in the shoulder. The treatment is to take antibiotic via IV and then with medicine applied locally to the shoulder. Every time they clean the area and apply new medicine locally, that is a trip to the OR. I have now had two of these with a third scheduled, probably for Sunday. I expect to go home after that, likely on Monday.
If once home, I can take a pill instead of the IV then I probably can teach class the rest of the semester. If I need to have an IV like thing at home, then I will be stuck at home. I'd prefer not to entertain that possibility at present. But you should be aware that it is possible, which would mean the class would turn into an online offering in some fashion as the only means to close out the semester.
I should know which of these possibilities will happen after the next trip to the OR and will post about that a few hours after it happens.
Again, let me apologize to the class for the uncertainty this situation has created. I know that none of you signed up for it.
Professor Arvan
Sent from my iPad
I can post messages like this one (obviously) but I can' do it for a long time, because I'm connected to a bunch of wires and it is awkward to do.I don't have access to Excel here. So I can't finish and then post the now infamous homework on bargaining. Nor can I post the grades from midterm1 and from the first half of your blog posts. All of that can be taken care of, I hope in short order, once I return home.
I have an infection under my skin but so far above the shoulder. So it is bad, but it would be worse if it were in the shoulder. The treatment is to take antibiotic via IV and then with medicine applied locally to the shoulder. Every time they clean the area and apply new medicine locally, that is a trip to the OR. I have now had two of these with a third scheduled, probably for Sunday. I expect to go home after that, likely on Monday.
If once home, I can take a pill instead of the IV then I probably can teach class the rest of the semester. If I need to have an IV like thing at home, then I will be stuck at home. I'd prefer not to entertain that possibility at present. But you should be aware that it is possible, which would mean the class would turn into an online offering in some fashion as the only means to close out the semester.
I should know which of these possibilities will happen after the next trip to the OR and will post about that a few hours after it happens.
Again, let me apologize to the class for the uncertainty this situation has created. I know that none of you signed up for it.
Professor Arvan
Sent from my iPad
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Turning a molehill into a mountain
The survey results can be seen in Moodle. I thought some of the comments were interesting. We'll
I again would like to apologize for missing class today. My present plan on how to manage that is simply to move everything back one class session, so our discussion on signaling will be on Monday, your Blog post about B&D chapter 8 can be turned in as late as Monday night. I'll read those on Tuesday and we can discuss on Wednesday. I will get the calendar adjusted to reflect these changes ---- in a little while.
So now the story of this little fiasco, which might prove interesting when we consider employee shirking, which sometimes happens in the form of absenteeism. Now you'll have the chance to tell your friends and family, "hey, my instructor cancelled class one day by giving the lame excuse that he had to go to the emergency room."
The medical issue, truly minor, is that one of the stitches didn't get absorbed properly so the wound opened and started oozing. I was home alone and it was getting a bit messy so I called my wife to see if she could help by calling the orthopedics folks at Carle and asking them what I should do. She calls back a few minutes later and says the nurse told her I should go to the ER. But when I finally saw the doc later today, he said the ER trip was unnecessary. He's on call and I could have met with him for a regular office visit. The nurse had panicked by recommending the ER. One good turn deserves another, so my wife panicked too. As a consequence I did go to the ER. The physician's assistant saw me in the waiting room so I wouldn't have an ER bill. He patched me up temporarily. I saw the doc later, and I'm seeing him tomorrow again just to make sure. But the whole thing is much ado about nothing other than you guys missing class.
They say - better safe than sorry. In this particular case I'm safe and also very sorry to have cancelled.
I again would like to apologize for missing class today. My present plan on how to manage that is simply to move everything back one class session, so our discussion on signaling will be on Monday, your Blog post about B&D chapter 8 can be turned in as late as Monday night. I'll read those on Tuesday and we can discuss on Wednesday. I will get the calendar adjusted to reflect these changes ---- in a little while.
So now the story of this little fiasco, which might prove interesting when we consider employee shirking, which sometimes happens in the form of absenteeism. Now you'll have the chance to tell your friends and family, "hey, my instructor cancelled class one day by giving the lame excuse that he had to go to the emergency room."
The medical issue, truly minor, is that one of the stitches didn't get absorbed properly so the wound opened and started oozing. I was home alone and it was getting a bit messy so I called my wife to see if she could help by calling the orthopedics folks at Carle and asking them what I should do. She calls back a few minutes later and says the nurse told her I should go to the ER. But when I finally saw the doc later today, he said the ER trip was unnecessary. He's on call and I could have met with him for a regular office visit. The nurse had panicked by recommending the ER. One good turn deserves another, so my wife panicked too. As a consequence I did go to the ER. The physician's assistant saw me in the waiting room so I wouldn't have an ER bill. He patched me up temporarily. I saw the doc later, and I'm seeing him tomorrow again just to make sure. But the whole thing is much ado about nothing other than you guys missing class.
They say - better safe than sorry. In this particular case I'm safe and also very sorry to have cancelled.
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Reminder David Kinley Lecture This Thursday
Austan Goolsbee
Public Lecture – “ America’s Economy and the World: Why
the Long Face?”
4:00-5:30 pm
Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Museum
Reception to Follow
Goolsbee was an economic adviser to then candidate Barack Obama in 2008. Recently he served as Chair of the President's Council of Economic Advisers. I'm guessing that the talk will be, at least in part, a reflection of that experience.
Monday, October 22, 2012
Survey on Course Directions
Please take a few minutes to complete this survey. I got a bit carried away in writing it so it is too wide to embed into the blog, which is why it is linked here instead.
The goal is to use the responses from the survey in our class discussion on Wednesday and then come up with whatever changes we will make in that session. I will aggregate the results Wednesday morning - probably around 9 AM. If you complete the survey before then, your views will be included in the aggregate results.
The goal is to use the responses from the survey in our class discussion on Wednesday and then come up with whatever changes we will make in that session. I will aggregate the results Wednesday morning - probably around 9 AM. If you complete the survey before then, your views will be included in the aggregate results.
Monday, October 15, 2012
Saturday, October 13, 2012
Getting Caught Up - Grades, Blog Posts, and Baseball
I have now enabled Moodle and put some data there that you might want to verify. First, on the left you should see a link to Grades. Click that. There should be 4 entries. The first is your alias. The other three are homework scores. Each submission is worth 10 points. You should also see a file near the top called Blog Participation Matrix. There should be an x for each post you have done.
If you believe there is a discrepancy, please let me know as soon as possible, so we can fix the problem.
When the midterm has been graded the scores will be entered into the Grades area in Moodle. After the sixth blog post I will also do grades and comments for those. Soon after, I'd like to meet with you to discuss your blogging and what you might do to improve things. Those meetings will occur outside regular class time and will need to be scheduled.
Monday is our review session. To makes that session worthwhile, you should come ready with your questions/issues. Of course, the midterm is Wednesday. It's written and photo copied. You really shouldn't need a calculator to do it, but you can bring one if it makes you feel more comfortable to do so. There is a blog post due this Thursday. The prompt for it has been posted, so if you'd like yo you can get it done early.
Finally I'm grateful that the Yankees made it to the next round and especially that yesterday's game started at 4 PM. I fell asleep in the middle of the game on Thursday. I hope I can make it through the ninth inning this evening.
If you believe there is a discrepancy, please let me know as soon as possible, so we can fix the problem.
When the midterm has been graded the scores will be entered into the Grades area in Moodle. After the sixth blog post I will also do grades and comments for those. Soon after, I'd like to meet with you to discuss your blogging and what you might do to improve things. Those meetings will occur outside regular class time and will need to be scheduled.
Monday is our review session. To makes that session worthwhile, you should come ready with your questions/issues. Of course, the midterm is Wednesday. It's written and photo copied. You really shouldn't need a calculator to do it, but you can bring one if it makes you feel more comfortable to do so. There is a blog post due this Thursday. The prompt for it has been posted, so if you'd like yo you can get it done early.
Finally I'm grateful that the Yankees made it to the next round and especially that yesterday's game started at 4 PM. I fell asleep in the middle of the game on Thursday. I hope I can make it through the ninth inning this evening.
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Candidate essay questions for midterm 1
One of three questions below will be the essay question on the midterm. Of course you should prepare for the exam as you see fit, but I encourage you to work through an answer to each question so you are ready for the test.
By the way, the exam is closed book, closed notes. The only materials you're allowed are pen and pencil and a calculator.
A. This question concerns transaction costs. The underlying cause for the transaction costs are specific inputs so that finding alternative suppliers is difficult if not impossible. The input supplier then has the power to "hold up" the organization. There are multiple potential ways to manage transaction costs. Here we'll consider three:
(i) monitoring performance coupled with the appropriate carrots or sticks,
(ii) extrinsic reward for excellent performance via bonuses, and
(iii) intrinsic reward by giving the input supplier some control over organization goals and strategies to implement those goals.
Discuss the upside and the downside with each particular method. Provide an example of a circumstance where that method is the preferred one,
B. This question concerns transfer prices. Provide a working definition for what a transfer price is. In a for-profit organization how should ownership (shareholders) want the transfer price to be set? Explain why others in the organization might want the transfer price to be set differently. What transfer price would these others like to see? When service quality is jointly set with the transfer price, what service quality would ownership like to see? Explain why this is the case. Others may want a different service quality level. Explain how their preferred service quality level differs from what ownership wants.
C. This question concerns economic efficiency concepts. There is a partial equilibrium concept and a general equilibrium concept. Describe each of these. Do the two concepts always coincide? If not, under what additional assumptions do they coincide. Provide an argument for why we should expect efficient outcomes. Economic efficiency has been critiqued on several grounds. Explain some of these criticisms and provide settings where the particular critique appears valid.
By the way, the exam is closed book, closed notes. The only materials you're allowed are pen and pencil and a calculator.
A. This question concerns transaction costs. The underlying cause for the transaction costs are specific inputs so that finding alternative suppliers is difficult if not impossible. The input supplier then has the power to "hold up" the organization. There are multiple potential ways to manage transaction costs. Here we'll consider three:
(i) monitoring performance coupled with the appropriate carrots or sticks,
(ii) extrinsic reward for excellent performance via bonuses, and
(iii) intrinsic reward by giving the input supplier some control over organization goals and strategies to implement those goals.
Discuss the upside and the downside with each particular method. Provide an example of a circumstance where that method is the preferred one,
B. This question concerns transfer prices. Provide a working definition for what a transfer price is. In a for-profit organization how should ownership (shareholders) want the transfer price to be set? Explain why others in the organization might want the transfer price to be set differently. What transfer price would these others like to see? When service quality is jointly set with the transfer price, what service quality would ownership like to see? Explain why this is the case. Others may want a different service quality level. Explain how their preferred service quality level differs from what ownership wants.
C. This question concerns economic efficiency concepts. There is a partial equilibrium concept and a general equilibrium concept. Describe each of these. Do the two concepts always coincide? If not, under what additional assumptions do they coincide. Provide an argument for why we should expect efficient outcomes. Economic efficiency has been critiqued on several grounds. Explain some of these criticisms and provide settings where the particular critique appears valid.
Monday, October 1, 2012
A Eulogy for Arthur Ochs Sulzberger
Sulzberger was the publisher of the NY Times. This piece makes him seem a saint. I'm sure he wasn't that. The piece is useful to us because it shows what attributes of senior management are prized by those who work under that management, particularly in news organizations.
Saturday, September 29, 2012
A good read that is relevant to our class
Doug Glanville has an unusual combination of gifts. He is a graduate of Yale and he is former Major League Baseball player. Now, among the things he does, he is a writer. This column about brotherhood, meant as a tribute to his dad, gives an eloquent description of the social climate to be found in an organization bound by "the invisible handshake."
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