PAI 300 Economics for Policy Analysis

Fall 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.

Announcements

Aug 27	The tentative dates for the flash talks are 10/1, 11/5 and 12/5.
Aug 26	Welcome!

Daily Assignments

D1: Background information - In class 8/27
D2: Expected Value and Adverse Selection - In class 8/27
D3: Adverse Selection in Health Insurance - In class 8/29
D4: Waiver Market Bids - In class 9/3
D5: Building the Market Demand Curve from Individual Data - In class 9/3
D6: Waiver Bids Round 2 - In class 9/5
D7: Large Scale Waiver Market Analysis - In class 9/5
D8: Examining the Impact of a Tax - In class 9/10
D9: Tax Policy Analysis - In class 9/10
D10: Solving for BAU and Policy Equilibria - In class 9/12
D11: Finding Market Equilibria - In class 9/12
D12: Calculating Welfare Impacts - In class 9/17
D13: Detailed Tax Analysis - In class 9/17
D14: Calculating Distributional Impacts - In class 9/19
D15: Completing the Tax Analysis - In class 9/19
D17: Example Elasticity Analysis - In class 9/26
D18: Cigarette Tax Analysis - In class 9/26 -> 10/3
D19: Presentation Feedback - In class 10/1
D20: Using Marginal Social Cost - In class 10/8
D21: Carbon Tax Analysis - In class 10/8

Weekly Assignments, Memos, and Flash Talks

Weekly 1: Math Refresher	Due Tue 9/3
Weekly 2: Adverse Selection in Health Insurance	Due Tue 9/10
Weekly 3: Analyzing a Gas Tax	Due THURSDAY 9/19 [extended to Mon 9/23]
Flash Talk 1	Due Mon 9/30 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.
Excel Certification: Maxwell and Arts and Sciences sponsor a free Excel Certification program.
How to Count This Course Toward the PST Economics Requirement: It's a very straightforward petition.
Khan Academy Module on Factoring: Very handy if you're rusty on factoring algebraic expressions.
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.

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URL: https://wilcoxen.maxwell.insightworks.com/pages/8431.html
Peter J Wilcoxen, The Maxwell School, Syracuse University
Revised 10/08/2024