Peter J Wilcoxen

PAI 300 Economics for Policy Analysis

Spring 2024

General Information About the Course

General Information, Textbook, Software, and Requirements
General information you may need at the beginning of the semester.
Course Outline
The list of the topics to be covered in class this semester including links to optional exercises.
Materials from Class
Copies of handouts, daily exercises, and other materials from class sessions.

Announcements

Jan 16 The tentative dates for the flash talks are 2/20, 3/26 and 4/23. 
Jan 16 Welcome! 

Daily Assignments

  1. D1: Background information - In class 1/16
  2. D2: Expected Value and Adverse Selection - In class 1/16
  3. D3: Adverse Selection in Health Insurance - In class 1/18
  4. D4: Waiver Market Bids - In class 1/23
  5. D5: Building the Market Demand Curve from Individual Data - In class 1/23
  6. D6: Waiver Bids Round 2 - In class 1/25
  7. D7: Large Scale Waiver Market Analysis - In class 1/25
  8. D8: Examining the Impact of a Tax - In class 1/30
  9. D9: Tax Policy Analysis - In class 1/30
  10. D10: Solving for BAU and Policy Equilibria - In class 2/1
  11. D11: Finding Market Equilibria - In class 2/1
  12. D12: Calculating Welfare Impacts - In class 2/6
  13. D13: Detailed Tax Analysis - In class 2/6
  14. D14: Calculating Distributional Impacts - In class 2/8
  15. D15: Completing the Tax Analysis - In class 2/8
  16. D16: Using Elasticities - In class 2/13
  17. D17: Example Elasticity Analysis - In class 2/13
  18. D18: Cigarette Tax Analysis - In class 2/15
  19. D19: Using Marginal Social Cost - In class 2/22
  20. D20: Carbon Tax Analysis - In class 2/22
  21. D21: Designing a Vaccination Policy - In class 2/27
  22. D22: Impact of a Minimum Wage on Employees - In class 2/29
  23. D23: Evaluating a Minimum Wage - In class 2/29
  24. D24: Impact of a Rent Control on Tenants - In class 3/5
  25. D25: Evaluating a Gas Price Ceiling - In class 3/5
  26. D26: Cross Subsidies in Flood Insurance - In class 3/7
  27. D27: Revising a Cross Subsidy at a Gym - In class 3/7
  28. D28: Minimizing Production Costs - In class 3/19
  29. D29: Building a Cost Curve - In class 3/21
  30. D30: Choosing the Level of Output - In class 3/28
  31. D31: Efficiency in Production - In class 4/2
  32. D32: Checking the Efficiency of a Monopoly - In class 4/2
  33. D33: Warmup Present Value Calculations - In class 4/4
  34. D34: PV and NPV of Streams of Payments - In class 4/9
  35. D35: PV of Infinite Streams - In class 4/9
  36. D36: PV of Long but Finite Streams of Payments - In class 4/11
  37. D37: Total Cost of Car Ownership Formulas - In class 4/11
  38. D38: Car Total Cost of Ownership - In class 4/11
  39. D39: Levelized Costs - In class 4/16
  40. D40: Bonds and Interest Rate Risk - In class 4/16
  41. D41: Using a Decision Tree - In class 4/18
  42. D42: Evaluating Changes in Risks - In class 4/25
  43. D43: Evaluating Changes in Risks over Time - In class 4/25

Weekly Assignments, Memos, and Flash Talks

Weekly 1: Math Refresher Due Tue 1/23 
Weekly 2: Adverse Selection in Health Insurance Due Tue 1/30 
Weekly 3: Analyzing a Gas Tax Due Fri 2/9 at 11:59 pm 
Flash Talk 1 Due Mon 2/19 by 11:59 pm. 
Memo 1: Gas Tax Analysis Due Fri 3/1 at 11:59 pm. 
Weekly 4: Evaluating a Price Floor on Alcohol Due Thu 3/7 
Flash Talk 2 Due Mon 3/25 by 11:59 pm. 
Weekly 5: Affordable Internet Service for Rural Areas Due Tue 4/2 
Flash Talk 3 Due Mon 2/22 by 11:59 pm. 
Weekly 6: Evaluating a Fuel Cell Research Project Due Tue 4/25 
Memo 2: Fuel Cell Analysis Due Thu 5/2 by 11:59 pm 

Optional Exercises

The exercises available from the links below are also available through the "Course Outline" page under individual topics. That's probably a better way to get to them. They're listed here as well in case that's convenient.

Economic Skills Project
Exercises with detailed explanations and some videos.
Five Minute Exercises
Very short practice exercises designed to be done in 5 minutes or so.
Supplementary Exercises
Other exercises you may want to do to help understand the material.

Other Resources

About Flash Talks
Guidelines for flash talks.
Math Quick Reference Guide
Quick reference on key math concepts used in the class.
Notation
A quick reference list of names, abbreviations and symbols.

Quick Tips on Writing Policy Memos
A few Do's and Don'ts about writing policy memos.
Excel Certification
Maxwell and Arts and Sciences sponsor a free Excel Certification program.
Khan Academy Module on Factoring
Very handy if you're rusty on factoring algebraic expressions.
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 URL: https://wilcoxen.maxwell.insightworks.com/pages/8431.html
Peter J Wilcoxen, The Maxwell School, Syracuse University
 Revised 05/01/2024