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Stanford ECON 101 - SYLLABUS

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Econ 101: FreakonomicsEconomics 102A Stanford University Winter 2007-2008 Instructor: Faye SteinerOffice: Economics 343Office Hours: Wed 2:30-3:30 & by appt Office Phone: (72)3-3987E-mail: [email protected] ECON 101: FREAKONOMICS I. Course Overview and Objectives: The goal of this course is to enable you to communicate economic ideas clearly and effectively in both oral and written form. The course is structured around the process of writing an economic paper in stages with a significant amount of feedback and guidance along the way. By the end of the quarter, I hope that we will have achieved the following learning goals: • Rhetoric – Students will be able to communicate effectively both in terms of delivery of their own ideas in oral and written form and the active listening to and reading of the ideas of their peers. • Research – Students will be able to think like economists and implement good research practices useful in academic and non-academic settings. • Review – Students will be able to work with others to review and discuss ideas of their fellow students. Students will be able to understand the perspective of fellow students, provide constructive feedback on areas of agreement and disagreement, and suggest areas for clarification, extensions or improvement. The context of the course is Steve Levitt and Stephen Dubner’s Freakonomics. We will accomplish our goals by learning to read critically, discuss, and present the economic papers on which this book is based. In parallel, students will propose a research question that will serve as a basis for subsequent writing assignments throughout the class, culminating with a final research paper. For your paper, you may choose any topic in economics or any topic outside of economics where you can apply economic reasoning, à la Freakonomics. The final paper must include original economic analysis. Students will have the opportunity to revise their papers and suggest revisions to their peers. 1II. Rules and Regulations Attendance: Required. Your active participation in class discussion constitutes a significant portion of your grade- see below. Economics Department Common Course Policies: All courses taught in the Stanford Department of Economics are governed by a common set of course management rules. A document explaining these rules may be found on the Economics Department website at http://www-econ.stanford.edu/academics/courses.html . Please be sure to read this document in its entirety and let me know me if you have any questions. Written Assignments: All written assignments should be submitted in triplicate to the TA and your two assigned peer reviewers. Written assignments should be done in a suitable font, such as Times New Roman, 11 or 12 point size, and double spaced so that readers have ample space for comments. No late assignments will be accepted, nonnegotiable. Grading: Your course grade will be based on the following: Grade DecompositionOral Commun-ication, 45%Written Commun-ication, 55% Oral Communication: • Leadership of class discussion 15% • Participation in discussion led by peers 15% • Final paper presentation 15% Written Communication: • Research question 10% • Outline 5% • First draft 10% • Peer review 10% • Final paper 20% 2III. Deliverables You will receive detailed guidance on the following deliverables throughout the quarter. Research question and 5 minute oral presentation- Turn in an approximately 2 page summary of the research question that you would like to cover in your paper for the class. This summary should include a description of the situation, provide at a high level any background information necessary to understand the situation, break down the situation into the main economic components and the key economic question, and suggest a few economic concepts that may apply in assessing the economic situation. You will present your proposed research question informally in class, and you will be asked to provide feedback on the research questions of your peers. Outline and annotated bibliography- Turn in a few page summary of your paper in outline form. The main topic areas for the outline may include: introduction, economic situation and background information, applicable economic concepts, discussion of how the economic concepts apply to the economic question, empirical support, and conclusions. Each topic heading should contain subheadings as appropriate as well as bullets with the main information, points, etc that you want to convey in that section in the logical order of presentation. It is also okay to make notes in the outline regarding areas that you need to do further research on to complete. This step is intended to help you organize and synthesize your ideas from the first written assignment, feedback you’ve received, analytical tools that you have honed in discussing Freakonomics articles, and additional work that you’ve done in preparation for the draft paper using library and data resources, as well as to create a game plan for the steps that you want to take to create the completed paper. First draft of complete paper- Turn in an 8 to 12 page full draft of your paper plus any tables or graphs that you want to include (optional) and a bibliography. The paper should include an introduction to the topic and economic question addressed in the paper, a discussion of the economic situation and background, a discussion of the economic concepts and theory that apply, a discussion integrating the economic situation and relevant economic theory with conclusions about what the theory would suggest about the economic situation, empirical evidence supporting your conclusions, and a summary of the main “take aways” from the paper. The paper must contain some of your own thought and ideas rather than just a literature summary. Empirical evidence can be some supporting statistics or discussions of results from economic journal articles, but your own in-depth econometric analyses are not required. Class discussion leadership- Working in pairs, you will choose an article from the assigned Freakonomics readings and lead a 45 minute in-class discussion section based on the paper. Before you lead the discussion, you are free and encouraged to meet with the TA or myself to review your plan and any slides/handouts. The discussion should summarize the key points of the


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