Good work yesterday on the avatars and economic definitions.
There are four parts to today's class
1. Economic values and assumptions
Differences of opinions over economics come from different beliefs about society, human nature, well-being, and the future. We'll explore these beliefs in our first hour and you'll reflect on the beliefs exemplified by your own definition of economics.
First, I'll give you several questions for the class to do Four Corners.
Second, we'll look again at the three schools of thought on economics and pull out some of the underlying beliefs wrapped up in each definition
2. Freakonomics
Behavioral economics believes the center of activity in the field should be on how and why humans behave they way they do when confronted with economic decisions. The master of this field is Steven Levitt and we'll listen to a portion of his book, Freakonomics, so you can get a sense about his beliefs and values. We'll probably take a break in the middle of this.
3. Labor Supply Curve
We'll look at the simplest model for the relation between wages and quantity of people willing to work. We'll talk about the assumptions that this model upon, it's predictive power, and how it fails to account for many other types of labor.
4. Your Avatar Gets a Job
You will identify four jobs from the table that you think your avatar as a chance to get. As getting any particular job is matter of luck, you'll draw a number from my magic hat to see which of these jobs your avatar get to take.
Homework for Friday, January 9th
Start thinking about your senior project
There are four parts to today's class
1. Economic values and assumptions
Differences of opinions over economics come from different beliefs about society, human nature, well-being, and the future. We'll explore these beliefs in our first hour and you'll reflect on the beliefs exemplified by your own definition of economics.
First, I'll give you several questions for the class to do Four Corners.
Second, we'll look again at the three schools of thought on economics and pull out some of the underlying beliefs wrapped up in each definition
2. Freakonomics
Behavioral economics believes the center of activity in the field should be on how and why humans behave they way they do when confronted with economic decisions. The master of this field is Steven Levitt and we'll listen to a portion of his book, Freakonomics, so you can get a sense about his beliefs and values. We'll probably take a break in the middle of this.
3. Labor Supply Curve
We'll look at the simplest model for the relation between wages and quantity of people willing to work. We'll talk about the assumptions that this model upon, it's predictive power, and how it fails to account for many other types of labor.
4. Your Avatar Gets a Job
You will identify four jobs from the table that you think your avatar as a chance to get. As getting any particular job is matter of luck, you'll draw a number from my magic hat to see which of these jobs your avatar get to take.
Homework for Friday, January 9th
Start thinking about your senior project