Microeconomics Exam to be held Jan. 12th

From Prof. Conning:

Hi,

Since it is now past midnight and there is no sign of the transit strike ending by tomorrow morning, I will simply follow Hunter's contingency plan and hold the exam on Thursday January 12th.

Most of you who wrote have told me that you prefer January 12th as the date for holding the exam. For the few of you who will be out of the country and absolutely cannot make the 12th, I will have to assign an INComplete by the January 18th grading deadline. We can change that to a grade as soon as you can take the exam in early February on a date to be announced.

Obviously this all makes everybody's life a bit more complicated, but on the bright side now you can spend even more time enjoying studying for Eco 701 ; )

Have a nice break,

Jonathan

P.S. -- Since several of you have already told me how your studying has been disrupted by all this uncertainty, let me commit to this announcement. In other words, if we all wake up and find the strike is off tomorrow at 8am, we will still just stick to the January 12th makeup date.

Finals Update - Micro and Econometrics

From Prof. Conning:

The transit strike has complicated everything.

Since it looks quite likely that the strike will extend into tomorrow Thursday, we need to consider contingent strategies to find a solution to what could be a complicated coordination game (which as you know can have multiple and inefficient equilibria).

These are the strategies we should be focusing on:

1) If the strike ends before noon on Thursday, proceed with the exam as scheduled for Thursday evening.

2) If the strike does not end before noon on Thursday, then either:

2.A) Follow Hunter's instructions and reschedule the exam to January 16th.

2.B) An exam in early February.

I could offer both 2A and 2B, but they would be different exams.

If you have received this email could you please email back to give me a sense of your preferred alternative. Please also let me know if you have access to blackboard. I will then dictatorially decide based on the feedback I get and report back.

Please understand that I have about 125 students this semester and like you many other work commitments in the month ahead. I cannot offer individualized exams and test dates. We need to find a focal point (or two) for the class.

Thanks,
Jonathan Conning

P.S. -- No evening review session tonight.

From Prof. Deb:

Enough people are in favor of an exam tomorrow (with another one in late
Jan. or early Feb inevitable). You can decide, but for tomorrow, start anytime from 12noon - 5pm tomorrow - earlier is better for me. From my experience yesterday and from what I've heard, you are better off travelling after 11am and trying to leave before 4pm (avoid normal commuting traffic).

Otherwise, there will be another chance in late Jan. or early Feb.

No exam on Jan 12.

Econometrics Update

From Prof. Deb,

Hi folks,

Here is the official word on Finals. If the strike is on Thursday morning, the exam is officially postponed until January 12. Some of you have already indicated Jan. 12 is not good for you. It is not good for me either as I am out of the country. I also do not intend to give (make)more than 2 exams, which is what would be certain if I honored the Jan. 12 date. So, here are some options I'd like your feedback on.

1. Give exam on Dec 22 as scheduled or earlier in the day (which might be easier) if the strike continues. I'm willing to be around most of the day to accommodate multiple times

2. Give "makeup" exam in early February, i.e., after spring classes start.

Please tell me if this works for you. If there is consensus, I'll make further arrangements. If not, we'll all suffer by taking an exam in early February.

Finally, please spread this word by forwarding to any group emails you have. I want to ensure everyone sees this.

Partha

Book update number 1 - Development Economics

The required text will be:

Ray, Debraj. Development Economics. Princeton University Press, 1998.

Here's the link to the book on half.com. I'll post other books as they become available.

Tamara's office hours for today......

Have been cancelled. Depending on whether the strike continues or not, she will be holding review sessions at the following times tomorrow:

701 - Microeconomics 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
721 - Econometrics 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Obviously, if the transportation situation remains the same tomorrow as it is today, all bets are off. Look to your e-mail and to the blog for updates regarding the rescheduling of finals.

Strike!

As of 3 a.m., the NYC Transit Worker's Union has voted for a system-wide strike. Apropos the post below, Prof. George's class will have a take-home exam posted at 5 p.m., due 5 hours later.

As I receive announcements from other economics courses, I'll post them right away.

Law and Economics Announcement

Apologies to everyone for my being late in posting the following:

From Prof. George:

Dear Law & Econ students,

You should all plan on taking the Law and Econ final tomorrow in class as scheduled.

However, in the event of a full transit strike that shuts down the whole system (not a partial shutdown), we will have a take-home exam. I will post the exam at 5:00 pm and ask you to email it back by 10:00 pm.

Please check the BB site for updates.

Lisa George

Econometrics Announcement

From Prof. Deb:

Answers to HW 6 are now online.

Exam 2 is graded. You may pick yours up starting Monday at 11am. Please
do not email me for scores tomorrow. I will not respond.

Partha

Microeconomics Announcement

From Prof. Conning:

Several Eco 701 updates:

(1) TODAY'S CLASS (last class). I will cover some more game theory material and material from Chapter 18 (on risk sharing). Better that we cover this material properly than rush to start something entirely new (so I've cut out chapter 20). We will also talk about content and study strategies for the final.

(2) NEW ONLINE MATERIALS: via the reading schedule: http://urban.hunter.cuny.edu/~conning/eco701/index.htm#read
(refresh your cache if you don't see the new links)

(a) A practice final exam (an actual exam from a few years ago). As you can see, it's cumulative. You should recognize a problem or two from the midterm.

(b) updated lecture notes from last class. These are somewhat more detailed than the slides I used in class (reflecting material I wrote on blackboards or things that came up during discussion).

(c) I have prepared answers to the last problem set and will post them tonight after you turn in your assignments.

(3)OFFICE HOURS NEXT WEEK.

Tamara has offered to hold office hours Monday from 5-7 and Tuesday from 3-5.

I will hold office hours next week Tuesday 2-3:30pm and Wednesday 6-8pm. I have also been answering several questions via email. I will start posting some of these answers to blackboard (I'll make the question poser anonymous).

(4)EXAM: From what I can figure out our final exam will be at 7:30pm on December 22 (check registrar's final exam schedule and tell me if you read it differently: http://registrar.hunter.cuny.edu/subpages/academic_calendar.shtml)

See you in class tonight.

Jonathan

Pre-exam 721 Study Session Tomorrow

There will be a pre-exam study group convening in the Economics Department conference room at 2:00 pm tomorrow. The room number is 1537 (15th floor) in the Hunter West building.

A few suggestions to get you ready:

• Go over the first exam. This will be a good refresher for the analytical portion of the test.
• Go over the all of the previous homeworks. You'd also be well-advised to review the "Stata - Basics by Example I and II" on Professor Deb's website.
• Whatever you do, don't freak out and make things too complicated. I recall one student last year created quadratic terms for what should have been a linear term.......a few parabolas later, he ran out of time, and failed to complete the test.

Also, the answers for homework 5 have been posted. Homework 6 will not be available until tomorrow, but IV estimations will not be on the exam.

Good luck tomorrow.

Job Market presentation this coming Wednesday

Anne Royalty, a professor of economics at Indiana University, will be presenting a job market paper this Wednesday at 11:30. It will be held in the Economics Department conference room (HW 1537) on the 15th Floor. She will be discussing the following paper:

Estimating workers' marginal valuation of employer health benefits: Would insured workers prefer more health insurance or higher wages?

The paper can be downloaded from the following link:

http://urban.hunter.cuny.edu/RePEc/seminar/hbdiscch_1205H.pdf

Additional MA class for the Spring

From Prof. Filer:

Dear all:

I just wanted to let you know that Professor Roberts from the Politics Department and I will be teaching a seminar on the Post Communist Transition in Central and Eastern Europe (including the former Soviet Union) for the Thomas Hunter Honors Program this spring.It looks as if there will be a few extra seats in the class. I am, therefore, prepared to enroll students in the course as an independent study (either Econ 390 or, with additional readings, Econ 790).

The course would, therefore, count for an economics elective at either the undergraduate or graduate level. If you are interested please e-mail me back or drop by to see me.

Summer Internship at Goldman Sachs

There will be an information session for people interested in interning at Goldman Sachs this summer. It will be held on Wednesday, January 11th at the Hunter Career Center. Pre-registration is required for you to attend.

Paula Wicklow from the Center has offered to critique cover letters and resumes prior to the session. If you are interested, e-mail me and we'll get you set up.

Many, many thanks

A big debt of gratitude is owed to those graduate students that have volunteered to moderate the undergraduate study sessions for next week. Special recognition is due to Ken (who had this task dumped into his lap just two weeks ago -and much to my delight- took off running) and Tamara for coordinating the times.

To fully appreciate the sacrifice that they're making, keep in mind that most of them are carrying a full load this semester and have their own studying to do.

They are:
Ryan Murphy
Ken Lord
Nathaniel Wright
Enkeleda Gjeci
Tamara Gurevich
Melanie Kim

Thanks again.

Study Group for 721

Tamara has agreed to moderate a study group for 721 this coming Wednesday from 2 pm to 4 pm. It will be in the economics conference room (HW 1537) on the 15th floor. If this time doesn't work for you, e-mail her.

Marketing Intern

Marketing Intern
Position Title: Marketing Intern
Type of position: Intern, unpaid
Minimum Time Commitment: 20 hrs/week
Duration: One semester Location: New York City Objective: To assist the Marketing Team in developing, maintaining, and organizing marketing materials, while providing a practical learning experience to students interested in marketing and fundraising for a large non-profit organization and in the general workings of a large international humanitarian aid organization. Overview: The Marketing Intern will support the activities of a Marketing Team. S/he will learn how an organization maintains donor relations, markets itself to donors and the public, and the general activities of a Development department. S/he will also have the opportunity, through working in the office, to learn about MSF's programs, and how it operates in the United States. This internship is ideal for anyone interested in fundraising for a non-profit, as well as the administration of non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Duties: The Marketing Intern will be expected to perform the following tasks:
Update and maintain MSF USA’s marketing files, both paper and electronic, on current and past MSF projects (20%)
Assist Marketing Coordinator with direct mail quality control projects (15%)
Conduct analysis of industry marketing materials and trends (15%)
Develop and maintain “creative wall” of MSF marketing materials (10%)
Assist Marketing Coordinator with organization and dissemination analytic reports to development team (10%)
Support Director of Marketing and Marketing Associate and Coordinator on other miscellaneous projects (10%)
Fulfill requests for marketing materials from various parties(10%)
Attend brown bag lunches, public education events, and staff and department meetings as often as scheduling allows (10%) Skills: Applicants should have:
Excellent organizational skills.
Ability to work independently, with guidance from staff members. Preferred Skills:
Strong Word, Excel, and database experience.
Excellent verbal and written communication.
Genuine commitment to the principles and work of MSF.
Any one is interested should visit the following web
http://www.idealist.org/en/internships/32197-168/98114-184

Reminder: Society for Economics Meeting Tomorrow

It will be in the 15th floor conference room (Room 1537) at 2 p.m. Pizza and refreshments will be provided.

Hope to see you there.

Partha Deb Presents......

for the brownbag seminar tomorrow. From Prof. Conning:

Dear all,

Just a reminder that Monday's brownbag seminar will at 11:30 will feature Partha Deb presenting his own paper (with Eugenia Priedane) on:

The effects of parent's cigarette and alcohol consumption on their children's time use and and educational attainment

The paper is available at http://urban.hunter.cuny.edu/RePEc/seminar/

Also, for those of you that were not in class on Thursday, the due date for the Microeconomics problem set has been changed to December 15th.

Society for Economics Meeting this Wednesday

The Society for Economics will hold its last official meeting for the semester this coming Wednesday (12/7). It will be held in the 15th Floor Economics Dept conference room (1538) in the Hunter West building at 2 p.m. Pizza and refreshments will be provided.

The meeting agenda will be:

• Setting up activity goals for the spring semester (seminars, speakers, etc.)
• Scheduling pre-final cram sessions for both graduate and undergraduate economics classes
• On-the-spot peer advisement for undergrads registering for the spring semester

If you have any questions / comments, please feel free to e-mail me.

UNDP Economist to speak tomorrow

The Economist's Society is having Richard Schiere, an UNDP economist, come to speak tomorrow, Wednesday November 30th. It will be in HW 415 at 1:00 p.m., and refreshments will be provided.

The topics will cover China and the Global Economy. If you're available, I would encourage you to go. My personal congratulations to the Economist's Society for setting this up.

Micro Update

Um, what's up with Melanie and the shotgun? We couldn't get her away from it.

From Prof. Conning:

Dear everyone in 701,

I've posted problem set 4 to the web link and I've set the due date in slightly under two weeks time: Thursday December 8th.

It covers materials from Chapter 12 (General Equilibrium/Edgeworth boxes) as well as 13 (Monopoly), 14(other types of imperfect competition) and Chapter 15 (Game Theory).

Some of you have asked me if you should read all the material in the chapters given that we have such limited class meeting time. I've identified sections of the textbook below that you can safely skim or ignore because we will not cover it in class (except perhaps for a brief in-class mention that will show up in the notes):

CH 9, Skim lightly (basically know how to setup and solve profit maximization but don't worry about elasticity rules)
CH 10, Skim (you should know this from earlier courses)
CH 11, Skim (you should know this from earlier courses)
CH 12, can skim/skip 349-356 on Existence
CH 21, just read 610-615
CH 15, can skip 463-467 on Games of Incomplete Information

See you next Thursday (we will wrap up General Equilibrium and Welfare and move into Imperfect Competition and Games),

Give the turkey a kick.....

...and let's go grab a beer. This Wednesday, wannabe economists once again descend on Phoenix Park (67th and 3rd) to ring in the holiday weekend.

I'll be there at 7:30 p.m. See you there.

Internship Opportunity at the UN

Jorge Vargas, a fellow undergrad, is the one to thank for the following (and Prof. Filer for the distribution):

My name is Jorge Vargas and I am an Undergraduate Econ major at Hunter College. My wife works at the UNDP - Human Development Report Office (HDRO) and they are looking for an intern to assist the Statisticians in the elaboration of the report.

Although the internship is not paid, we both thought this would be a good opportunity for a Hunter student to gain some experience and networking connections.

While HDRO would prefer a graduate student, they would consider an excellent undergrad. I know they are looking at other universities, too, so I trust you would be able to reach as many qualified candidates as possible in short time. My wife is copied in this message since she is the focal point to receive all applications. She can be contacted for further details at:

melissa.hernandez@undp.org

For those of you that did not receive the e-mail, and would like to see the description of the internship, e-mail me, and I'll forward you a copy.

Awesome, Jorge. Many thanks.

The IRS VITA Program

Alex Asnes has asked Tams and myself to get the word out about Hunter's IRS VITA program. For 18 years the Hunter Accounting Society has provided low-income families with tax preparation assistance through trained economics and accounting students. While there's not enough room on the blog to discuss the program in length, here are some highlights:

• IRS software training will take place during the Winter Break. It requires two eight-hour days of training. The first day needs to take place during the week of January 9-13, and the second day of training takes place during the week of January 17 - 23.
• The volunteer commitment is four hours a week from Febraury 15 to April 17. You'll be working directly with families and fellow Hunter College students.
• In order to register for the program students must send their full name, address, phone number and emailto our organization at huntervita@yahoo.com .

Not only is this a karmically sound way to spend your time, but you'll be gaining some valuable experience as well. This posting does not do Alex's e-mail justice, so if you'd like me to forward you a copy, feel free to e-mail me.

More announcements.......

First, the new Spring graduate schedule has been distributed by Prof. Filer. If you did not receive his e-mail, and you're a part of the BA/MA or MA program, please send him a message and he'll add you to the distribution list.

Here are the courses being offered next semester:

Econ 703 - Macroeconomics Mondays 5:30 - 7:20 Professor Sangeeta Pratap

Econ 722 - Econometrics Thursdays 5:30 - 7:20 Professor Deb

Econ 710 - Monetary Theory Tuesdays 7:30 - 920 Professor Thapar

Econ 715 - Public Finance Mondays 7:30 - 9:20 Professor Balsam

Econ 730 - Development Economics Wednesdays 7:30 - 9:20 Professor Filer

Econ 741 - International Finance Thursdays 7:30 - 9:20 Professor Kearney

There are additional, helpful comments included in Prof. Filer's e-mail. If you need me to forward it to you, please let me know. Also, for those of you that want to avoid the time-dependent extortion that takes place in our bookstore, I'll hopefully be posting the required textbooks soon.

TA Positions for the Spring Semester

From Prof. Filer:

Dear MA and BA/MA students:

Once again the department will have TA slots available for the spring semester. These will be assigned to all double sections of 100, 200, and 201. Each slot will involve about 6 hours of direct contact a week (prep time will be extra) and pay about $2475 for the semester.If you are interested, please respond to me BY DECEMBER 1st with the following information:

Name
ID Number
Courses (and sections) you are interested in being a TA for
Days of the weeks and hours in each of these days you ARE AVAILABLE to
attend classes and/or hold office hours.

Once I have your responses, I will circulate the information to faculty teaching these sections for their preferences and begin the matching process.

Thanks
Randy Filer

Last announcement

The semester is quickly winding down, and the Society for Economics is looking to have an end-of-the-year bash. We're looking for feedback as to when and where. While I can't positively promise a lot of money from our funds for the event, I will say that each time we've gone out everybody's had a good time. Again, your feedback is important - especially when it comes to scheduling a time that everyone has free.

A few announcements

Law and Economics Announcement

From Prof. George:

Dear Law & Econ Students,
We have a lot of reading for tomorrow. The textbook has an overview of the basic law & economics of the legal process. I've also assigned four papers. The two theory papers (Priest & Klien, Bebchuk) represent the key ideas about disputes selected for litigation. The two Waldfogel papers empirically test the two theories. None of this material is covered in our text.

Because the papers are closely related, we will cover material in all of them. However you do not need to study the mathematics of the theory or the empirical tests, just familiarize yourself with the ideas and the basic mathematical approach.

Lisa

Research Assistant Position Available

From Prof. Filer:

This is a very good opportunity to build your resume for those interested in Ph.D. applications. I do not know if it is paid, but this is the type of internship we could arrange course credit for if you are selected.

An opening for a part-time research asistant (10 hours per week) is now available at the International Longevity Center. The RA will participate in a research project studying the income and expenditures of older households in 12 countries. Current analysis focuses on France and the US, and is primarily based on national budget surveys. This work is under the direction of Drs. Charlotte Muller and Oleg Volkov.

The RA would be assisting in table preparation and contributing to the analysis for the final France-US report and also in updating ILC's international database on Economic Status of Older Persons [ESOP]. Statistical and computer skills are necessary.


Household budget surveys support comparisons of income sources, living standards and quality of life as indicated by consumption patterns, and productive engagement as revealed by reliance on earnings, subjects of interest in the context of population aging.

Would you kindly post this announcement? Interested students should send their c.v. to Dr. Muller at
charlottem@ilcusa.org

Learn from my mistakes....

....and start using the do-file editor.

A couple of you have asked me why I insist on using the do-file editor rather than punching the commands directly in Stata. The reasons are several, and they are all tied into a data set that I was using over the summer:

1. The do-file is a convenient way to maintain all of your required data revisions, so you don't have to do them again....and again.....and again. For instance, if I wanted a particular subsample within a given dataset and I know I'll have to keep using this data, rather than trying to remember all of the filters I applied to it, I just have to refer to my do-file (or even better - just run it) and it's there - every time.
   
2. One time, I came up with a particularly good estimation that fit with my intuition by including some additional variables. I left it alone for a couple of weeks, and then tried to draw them from memory. Didn't work out very well. I should have maintained this new estimation in my do-file.
   
3. Stata prompts you in the end if you want to save the changes that you've made to the data. It could be something benign, like keeping the variable age-squared in your file ,or it could be that you dropped a few variables and Stata would like to know if you'd like to keep this change permanent. Bad idea. Really. I made a revision permanent to a dataset that I painstakingly compiled over several days. Not only do you lose your data, but if you're tempted to run your estimations again on the revised dataset, you're never quite sure if you're including things that should be in there. Cardinal rule number 1 - never permanently modify your original sample - even if you're sure that the revision is 'safe'. Better to keep your modifications limited to your do-file. I cannot emphasize this enough.
   

Feel free to let me know if you have any questions. Better yet, ask Prof. Deb. If you don't know what a do-file looks like, I'll post one on the blog that I made for Homework 5 on Friday.

Attention law and econo-nerds

As if there weren't enough literature from class to satisfy your appetites, I thought I'd draw your attention to a blog being run by the big dogs themselves, Gary Becker and Richard Posner. I've browsed through a couple of their postings, and while I carry the humble opinion that our blog contains much richer content, Becker and Posner hold their own discussing various contemporary issues. As an aside, I'm all for posting the mugs of various contributors on this blog as well.

Here's the link - it'll also be posted permanently under 'econ on the web':

http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/

For somewhat ego-inflated postings that also discuss economic issues, here's Brad DeLong's blog:

http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type/

Speaking of egos, if you're like me and yours took a bruising after this round of midterms, feel free to join me for a drink this Wednesday night at (where else) the Phoenix Park pub after 6:00 p.m. Professors are more than welcome to join us as well.

Feeling like being an economist is not your speed? I know the feeling. This site may provide some solace. How is being a cowboy the number 3 worst job?

Are you kidding me?

The midterm period is almost over....

with one more to go. Two study sessions for Prof. Deb's class will be held:

• Wednesday afternoon from 2:30 p.m. until 6,
• Thursday from 2:30 p.m. until the beginning of class

Both will be held (space allowing) in the 15th Floor conference room. I'll post any location changes if there is a need. Feel free to email me if you have any questions.

Prof. Deb has posted the new homework on his website. His suggestion is to at least look the question on the Chow test before the exam.

Important note: This Thursday's exam will be held in the assigned room (Room C109 in Hunter North), and not the computer lab.

Society for Economics Meeting Tomorrow

As a reminder, the Society for Economics will hold its first official meeting tomorrow at 2:00 pm. We'll be in the 15th floor conference room (Room 1538) Hunter West.

The agenda has been posted on Ryan's website. You can access it by clicking this link. There will be refreshments, and a study group for that night's micro exam will start right after the meeting.

See you there.

Weekend Study Sessions for....well, for just about any of our econ classes

For anyone that's interested in coming, the econ department conference room will be open this weekend from 10 am to 6 pm. It's room 1537 on the 15th floor in Hunter West. I'll be there banging out Lagrangians and waxing poetic about the economic efficiency of contracts.

If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me.

See you there.

A few announcements

Econometrics (721) class cancelled this Thursday (10/20)

Per Prof. Deb, class will be cancelled this Thursday. The due date for Homework 4 has been pushed back to October 27th.

Lunchtime seminar this Wednesday

Prof. Chernick has extended an invitation to all BA/MA and MA students to attend the following seminar:

Wednesday October 19 th 11:30 - 1 pm Rajeev Dehejia (job market candidate) "The Business Cycle and Babies' Health: Further Results."
http://www.columbia.edu/~rd247/papers/dehejia_lleras_quality.pdf

Location: 1537 Hunter West

I'd like to add that this seminar and the one I attended today both use regression methods that are similar to the ones that we are learning in class....those of you that are starved to see how econometrics can be applied to the real world would be well-advised to attend.

Society for Economics Agenda suggestions

The executive committee and others that are interested are in the midst of developing an agenda for our first official meeting. While Eric, Ledi, and myself have ideas about what needs to be done this year, your suggestions are both welcomed and appreciated. If you'd like to see something discussed, please email me.

In particular, I'd love to hear about how you'd like our new Society webpage to look.

Lunchbox Seminar Tomorrow

From Prof. Conning:

Monday October 17th 11:30-1pm
Jonathan Morduch, NYU (with Rajeev Dehejia and Heather Montgomery) Do Interest Rates Matter? Credit Demand In The Dhaka Slums

New seminar dates have also been announced at: http://urban.hunter.cuny.edu/RePEc/seminar/

The Morduch paper is a nice example of a 'differences in differences' approach to estimating a policy change impact. MA students taking 721 or 722, or thinking about thesis projects with a micro-data topic might find it an interesting case study to learn from.

Hunter College Society for Economics Meeting

There is a Society for Economics meeting scheduled for October 27 in the Conference Room on the 15th Floor at 2 PM. An agenda for the meeting will be posted the day prior. Members are welcome to remain after the meeting for a study group.

PhD information session with Dr. Filer

Prof. Filer has been kind enough to schedule an information session for students potentially interested in pursuing a PhD in economics. It will be this coming Wednesday (10/19) at 7:30 pm in the conference room on the 15th Floor (Hunter West).

This is a rare opportunity to get your questions answered about taking the next step. Please take advantage of it.

Hunter College Society for Economics

There are quite a few announcements to make, so please be sure to read through this entire post.

First, I am happy to announce that the Hunter College Society for Economics is now officially chartered by the USG. Our first act this year was to put together a tutoring group, and a special thanks is owed to Tamara for her efforts in getting everybody's availability together. Along with my fellow officers, her and Ariel have proven to be invaluable resources in getting everything started. Also , my personal thanks to all of the tutors that have made themselves available during their crazy schedules.

An e-mail and flyers will be distributed to the relevant instructors by the end of the week. The schedule will be posted on the blog by tomorrow afternoon. If you have any questions, please let me or Tamara know.

Second, until our 'official' website is launched, visit this blog for Society meeting times and locations. Meetings will take place on a weekly / bi-weekly basis as needed, with their attendant agendas being made available the day prior. Budget permitting, there will be food / refreshements, and a study group immediately following.

There will be an informal opportunity to meet everyone this coming Thursday (10/13) at the Phoenix Park at 7:30. Impromptu, I know, but I'll be there. And you know what they call guys who drink alone - so please come.

Also, Ryan has been gracious enough to grant us his webspace for Hunter-specific economics resources. You can access it by clicking this link, and it is also permanently posted under Student Resources in the right margin.

Okay...a couple of class-related announcements:

Per Prof. Deb:

A handout describing how to use Stata's do file editor and how to create and use log files is available at my website.

Homework 4 is also now available, along with the required dataset.

Per Prof. Conning:

Dear all in Eco 701,

After some pondering, I have decided to MOVE the Eco 701 midterm exam until OCTOBER 27th.

As several of you had pointed out, it would have been difficult to collect your homeworks before the originally scheduled October 20th date, yet the written solutions to the homework would have been an essential study aid.

What I propose is to move the midterm to October 27th. You will turn in your homework assignments on Thursday the 20th and I will post answers shortly after.

The only cost of this delay is that the midterm will now contain some additional material from 'Production' (chapter 18).

I will try to email everyone in the class and post announcements to the website and blackboard. If you know of anyone in the class who I may have missed, please forward this message.

I'll see you on the 20th.

Jonathan Conning

New due date for Micro Problem Set 3

According to Prof. Conning's syllabus, the due date for PS 3 in Microeconomics has been pushed back to October 20. So - whoever's been praying for the extension - keep up the good work.

Tutors Needed

The Hunter College Society for Economics is in need for BA/MA or MA students that have demonstrated above average proficiency and are willing to tutor in the following classes:

Intermediate Macro and Microeconomics
Economic Statistics (Both 221 and 321)

Tutoring brings a myriad of benefits including:

• Experience in teaching / practicing with students
• Dusting off material that you may find useful in the future, but have forgotten about (I had this experience trying to explain the formula for variance to someone the other day)
• Students with tutoring experience will often be the first ones considered for any open TA positions
• It looks great on a resume for a future job / PhD prospects.
  

Please contact myself or Tamara if you're interested in participating. We'd like to have a schedule for distribution to students by the middle of next week.

Interested in becoming a PhD? Better read the following.

Many thanks to Melanie for providing the following link. Those of you thinking about going all the way may find the information useful.

Also, this site provides some insight on how the whole process works.

Internship Opportunity

If you've been interested in development, then you know that a hot topic for the past decade has been the usage of microcredit in underserved communities. The posting below is for a well-respected non-profit that has attracted funding from companies like the Citigroup Foundation.

From Prof. Conning:

.....I'm forwarding below an invitation for interns at ACCION New York sent to me by Anne Sormani, a recent Hunter MA grad. ACCION is one of the most influential organizations in the field of microfinance worldwide. This is one of their domestic operations, focused on providing microcredit in NYC. It's obviously not much pay as an intern and a substantial commitment, might be of interest to any students with a strong dedication to social entrepreneurship, microfinance, or poverty issues. Accion also seems to promote talent quickly, so it could perhaps evolve into something else. Anne started at ACCION last year as an entry-level underwriter, and is now vice-president of lending.

ACCION New York
Lending Intern
ACCION New York (www.accionnewyork.org) is a non-profit microenterprise development organization dedicated to increasing incomes and creating jobs in low-income communities. Subsequent to 9/11, ACCION developed the American Dream Fund to assist businesses affected by the events of September 11th. Through this program, we have distributed more than $2.5 million to nearly 250 businesses, many of whom continue to struggle to return to profitable operations.
Academic background in business, financial analysis, providing sufficient skills to read income statements and understand cash flow. You are also street smart and generally savvy with matters of money. You are preferably bilingual (English/Spanish) and are comfortable using your Spanish in a business setting, and have experience communicating with Latino and immigrant populations. Excellent communication skills, allowing you to communicate with a wide variety of potential clients including those with lower levels of financial literacy. You are a persuasive person who is not afraid to “sell” (a product, an idea). You are an adaptable person with demonstrated initiative who knows how to “roll-up-your-sleeves” to get a job done. You are detail-oriented, organized, and thrive in a fast-paced work environment. You are familiar with Microsoft Excel. You are willing to make a 2 semester commitment.
ACCION New York seeks dedicated, hard working individuals interested in promoting microfinance. Through our lending and other services, we help entrepreneurs strengthen their businesses, stabilize their incomes, create additional employment and contribute to the economic revitalization of their communities. Individuals will have the unique opportunity to contribute to our mission by meeting and interviewing potential borrowers, analyzing their businesses, assessing their credit needs and ensuring quality lending.

Contact:
Alex Stein
VP, Finance & Administration
ACCION NEW YORK
115 East 23rd St., 7th Fl.
New York, NY 10010
212-387-0377 ext 314
212-387-0277 FAX
astein@accionnewyork.org

Anne has offered to be a resource for those that are interested. You can contact her at asormani@accionnewyork.org.

Economics Society Elections

Ariel, the Economics Society's outgoing president, has announced upcoming elections for the club's new officers. As of yet, it's a mystery as to who might run........

I'd like to publicly announce that my vote could be easily swayed by any variety of bribes. Those interested could meet me for happy hour at the Phoenix Park bar. Paying for the beers consumed during that meeting would help.

All kidding aside, my experience has been that events like this can set the tone for the rest of the year. Many of us Hunter veterans have griped about the lack of support/organization that we've received as students. This is your chance to do something about it.

Here's how to get involved:

Elections are to take place this coming Thursday, September 22 at 4:30 in HW 1537 or 1538. You can make it - Prof. Deb just postponed the due date for Homework 2.

If you are interested in running, e-mail both Ariel (ariel_tal2010@hotmail.com) and Prof. Chernick (Howard.Chernick@hunter.cuny.edu). Officer positions include President, Vice-President, Treasurer, etc. Elected terms last for 1 year. Be prepared to make a short speech supporting your candidacy.

Also, for a primer on school campaigns see the movie election or napoleon dynamite.

Best of luck.

Study Group Malarkey

Many of you have asked about participating in Study Groups for your various classes. Midterms for most of the grad classes will take place from the middle to the end of October.

In anticipation of this mid-autumn downer, I am asking for those of you interested in attending several study group sessions (one for each class) to send me the following information:

My e-mail: fselck@hunter.cuny.edu

• E-mail address along with your name (I can probably guess who diggydrawers@hotmail.com is, but your real name would make it easier)
• Grad classes that you are currently enrolled in
• Highest level math course taken (this is in the interest of appointing a facilitator for each group, and in my experience, the math whiz was the best go-to person for everybody)
• Preferred location to meet (i.e., coffee shop in the immediate environs versus Hunter Library)

The first round of sessions will take place the first week of October. Also, I'll compile e-mail addresses by class - that way, members can exchange questions/answers when you're not able to make the group.

I'll see to it that a space is reserved, and notifications go out to everybody. Remember, this will only work as well as the number of people involved - the more the merrier.

Econ MA Scholarship Opportunity - Urgent response required

Please note that this is only relevant for MA students paying graduate tuition.

Profs. Filer and Honig send the following:

We are pleased to inform you that you may be eligible for scholarship aid made available by Hunter College and CUNY to defray some of the increases in graduate student tuition approved by the CUNY Board of Trustees for fall 2005.We all want to assist you in every way we can to stay in school and successfully complete your studies. As you may recall, President Raab wrote a memo to you in early July detailing the various financial assistance options open to you at Hunter College. Our aim in writing at this time is to reinforce her earlier note and to encourage you to apply for this worthwhile scholarship.To begin the process, log on to this link. Once you are on the financial aid page, click on Hunter College Scholarships Application.Simply fill out and submit the on-line scholarship application by October 14, 2005 and you will be notified of your eligibility at the earliest opportunity.We sincerely hope this source of financial support will help you succeed in your studies.

In other words - free money. Apply.

Stata Resources and Graphing Functions

For those of you that are looking into tips and insight on using Stata, the UCLA portal for the software is an excellent resource. On it you will find basic command usage, how to examine different variables, modifying your data, etc.

The link is permanently posted on the right under 'student resources'.

Stata 9.1 is now available for download from http://www.stata.com (thanks to Chris Month for the update).

Also, for those of you that are having trouble graphing functions (a recent assignment comes to mind) go to this link. It's not the current homework assignment, but the idea is to be able to mimic the formula and data resulting in the graph. It's a spreadsheet written in Excel, so if you have Microsoft Office, there's no need to download additional software.

As always, if you have additional suggestions, let me know and we'll post it.

Mandatory Thesis Meeting September 14th

There will be meeting for those interested in submitting their thesis before September of 2006 this coming Wednesday. It will be in the Economics conference room on the 15th floor of the Hunter West building at 7:30 p.m.

Attendance is required if you plan on handing in your thesis this year. Prof. Filer will review requirements, and also provide hints on how to get started.

Seminar series in Economics at Hunter

An invitation from Prof. Conning:

All BA/MA students are warmly invited to attend. The schedules for the two seminar series are the following:

Monday Brown Bag Seminar at Hunter College
http://urban.hunter.cuny.edu/RePEc/seminar/

Friday Labor and Human Resources seminar at the Graduate Center http://urban.hunter.cuny.edu/RePEc/seminar/gc.htm

Both are 1.5 hours in length (people are free to come and leave of course). The former is a bit more informal and often presents work in progress, while the latter has some pretty big names lined up and should be better attended.

For those of you working on your thesis

Prof. Golbe has suggested the following text:

Greenlaw, Steven A. ISBN: 0-618-37983-5
Doing Economics

The book can be found at www.college.hmco.com.

A quick note about the blog....

I'm anticipating this to be a temporary address / format for this website. There are plans to add an indexing function for each posting (otherwise this blog will get very, very long) along with the ability for many students (and not just the three to the right) to add things to the site. Feedback is both welcome and appreciated.

In the meantime, if you do have something to add (or have something to announce), feel free to e-mail me at fselck@hunter.cuny.edu.

Informal study group for Micro and Metrics

For those of you interested, a few of us are getting together to go over homework for Microeconomics (ECO 701) and Econometrics (ECO 721) tomorrow, September 8th.

We plan on meeting at around 1 pm on the fourth floor in the library. While we do not have a reserved space on the floor, we should be a group of at least four, and therefore hard to miss. Some of us will be there up to class time.

Textbooks - First update

For those of you interested in ordering your textbooks ahead of time:

Eco 701 - Microeconomics - Conning

Nicholson, Walter ISBN: 0-32427-0860
Microeconomic Theory with Infotrac: Basic theory and extensions

Eco 721 - Econometrics (2 texts) - Deb

Wooldridge, Jeffrey M. ISBN: 0-32411-3641
Introductory Econometrics: A Modern Approach

Long, J. Scott ISBN: 0-80397-3748
Regression Models for Categorical and Limited Dependent Variables

Eco 795.80 - Law and Economics - George

Cooter, Robert and Ulen, Thomas ISBN: 0-20177-0253
Law and Economics

Time series and Industrial organization will be forthcoming.....you'll also note that I neglected to include the editions for the texts. This is intentional. Since the syllabi have not been distributed (and for the most part, will not be until the start of the semester) I add this small caveat - while I would purchase the latest editions available, I cannot guarantee that these will be the right editions used.

This site seems to provide the best textbook deals: www.half.ebay.com. If anyone else has suggestions on where to buy books, e-mail me and I'll post those sites as well.

Welcome to Hunter Grad Economics

This meeting space is being developed for current graduate students studying economics at Hunter College. Postings will be moderated by myself and Enkeleda for now, and we anticipate adding more contributors as the Fall 2005 semester progresses.

To make announcements, ask questions, post study meetings, share information, or just about anything else, feel free to e-mail any of the contributors listed to the right or commenting by clicking the link beneath the post.

In the next couple of weeks, we'll list the required books for all the grad classes being offered next semester.

Best of luck.