Overview
Presentation date and time: May 16: 9–12 AM
You may work with a partner if you wish.
Maximum time you may use: 13 minutes (may be less—this will be determined by the last day of class)
The class will decide on most interesting presentations (not grades). There may be terrible prizes.
Part of the assignment is to contribute to discussion of your fellow students’ presentations.
Instructions
Find some current or historical event and analyze it using the tools from class.
You should use multiple course concepts if you can. A single shift in D or S in a single market is not very interesting and does not tell me much about your mastery of course concepts. Try to tell the class an interesting story with multiple parts. Speculate a bit on effects beyond that one market. This speculation is an important way that researchers think of new research hypotheses. Make this a celebration of what you have learned. Aim to include concepts from at least three chapters.
Cause then effect
Most presentations will describe some event (a cause) that affects choices. The choices are not the event. Be clear about cause and effect.
Example:
- Event (cause):
- increased gas tax
- Effect on choices:
- reduction in supply of gas (or demand, depending on who pays the tax) and increase in demand for electric cars
Effect then cause
Sometimes, you can start with an observed effect—some data to explain.
For example, you might observe an increase in the number of economists studying issues related to aging and then explore what causes led to that outcome (this increase really has been happening in recent years).
As another example, you might have observed any of these during the first year of the pandemic and want to explain the change:
- An increase in the number of offers on houses for sale
- An increase in the price at which houses sold
- An increase in rates of web searches for houses for sale
- A decrease in the average time a house is up for sale
Caution
Do not go looking for economic news for a few reasons:
- In this class, economics is a way of approaching problems rather than a set of topics
- You must present your own analysis
- When reporters or business people say “shortage” or “supply”, they do not mean the same thing that economists mean
In past classes, most presentations that claimed there was a shortage were wrong. Shortages that persist for long are uncommon outside of crises (like the last two years). A reduction in supply is not a shortage. Shortages occur only when prices are “sticky” (slow to adjust). If you claim there is a shortage, you should be able to provide more evidence.