Economic research

Analytical tools

Title Description

See Example 5 and Matched Problem 5, on pp. 22-23.

There are many other online guides to graphing linear functions and solving for their intersection. This is the most appropriate one I could find for this context, but has a number of small typos and errors. Among them is that the intercept (P=5) of the supply function should be at the first tick mark on the vertical axis, not below it.

I have requested permission from the author (at http://www.profdatqcecon.org/Econ101class.htm) to use a version in which I have made corrections, and will post that as soon as possible if given permission. 

Update: given no response from the author, I've posted a corrected version under Activities.

Among the many sources of printable graph paper templates is https://www.printablepaper.net/category/graph; usually 4 or 5 lines per inch with heavy index lines is best.

Optional, using calculus for marginal analysis.

In the Cobb-Douglas utility function presented in class, the exponents on the quantities of goods (b and 1-b) are assumed to be between 0 and 1 and sum to 1. b represents the relative taste (as a share of 1) of the consumer for the first good, and so appears in each demand function.

These lecture notes are very similar, but use a slightly more general form of the function in which the exponents (a and b) are between 0 and 1 but may not sum to 1. Here a/(a+b) represents the relative taste of the consumer for the first good.

News & analysis, current & past

Title Description

Not assigned (yet, as of 1/16/18), just saving a link to the article I opened in class as a demo of relevant coverage in The Economist.

Estimates from Spanish data, related to Exam 2 question c., as well as previous lecture about this topic. The methods are more complex than those described, but build on the same basic concepts and methods.