Fall 2016 Announcements

Announcement 10/3/2016:

Problem Set # 3 is due at the beginning of the lecture on Wednesday, October 5. For those who need more time, you may hand in Problem Set #3 without penalty any time before the beginning of lecture class on Wednesday, October 12.
Prelim # 1 is scheduled to be during class on day, date. No books. No computers.

Announcement 9/30/2016:

Here is a paper by MIT’s Steve Ross on derivative pricing. Some of its more elementary, introductory parts might make a good presentation topic.

 

 

Announcement 9/27/2016:

 Some tips for possible talks:
Larry Kotlikoff (Boston University)
1. Generational Accounting
2. Cure for financial fragility (I disagree, but it is worth reading)
3. Social Security (Larry is the most knowledgeable on US OASDI etc)
4. The Fair Tax
5. Other
Richard Sylla (NYU)
1. Founding Choices (Irwin and Sylla editors) collection of essays on US economic policy in the 1790’s
2. Alexander Hamilton
Charles P. Kindleberger
1. Manias, Panics, and Crashes
2. The World in Depression
3. International currency: Medium of International Exchange (MIT)
4. Other
The South Sea Bubble
by Gerald Rufus Isaacs (2d Marquis of Reading, Viscount Erleigh)
reprinted by Greenwood Press, Publishers, Westport , Connecticut, 1933
Ponzi scheme
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponzi_scheme
But perhaps contrast to the OG work we have done.
Tulip Mania
Contrast to OG?
Peter M. Garber, etc
Alp Simsek (MIT)
 
Joseph Schumpeter:
“Some Unpleasant Monetarist Arithmetic” by Neil Wallace and Thomas J. Sargent 
Some more later. Please see me to discuss presentation topics.

 

Announcement 9/26/2016:

The following is a schedule for the upcoming Cornell/Penn State Macroeconomics Conference, which will be held on October 1st and 2nd.

 

 

Announcement 9/19/2016:

The proposed in-class prelim dates are as follows:

  • Prelim 1: Monday, October 17, 2016
  • Prelim 2: Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Additionally, Dr. Shell will be unable to attend lecture or hold office hours on Monday, November 21st. Instead, the course assistants will hold a voluntary question-and-answer session during normal class time.

 

 

Announcement 9/16/2016:

On Monday, September 19, we will begin the analysis of overlapping-generations. Here are the readings; the same list can be found in the course syllabus, where the URL’s will take you directly to the articles.

Overlapping Generations:

  • Karl Shell, “Notes on the Economics of Infinity,” Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 79(5), (September/October 1971) 1002-1011 Appears in Spanish as “Notas sobre las economias del infinite” (translation by M. Santos), Cuadernos Economics de I.C.E., Vol. (1), (1987) 31-39.

Shell-Smith is merely an introduction.

Samuelson JPE is the classic, genius discovery. In addition to realistic demography, Samuelson introduces (1) money transfers and (2) the unbounded time horizon.

Shell JPE gets to the essence for monetary, macroeconomics. This paper might be the reason the OG (or OLG) is well-known in macro/monetary. It is anti-Ricardo. Pro rational bubbles.