PAI 300 Economics for Policy Analysis

Spring 2025

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

Jan 13

Welcome!

Daily Assignments

D1: Background information	In class 1/14
D2: Expected Value and Adverse Selection	In class 1/14
D3: Adverse Selection in Health Insurance	In class 1/16
D4: Waiver Market Bids	In class 1/21
D5: Building the Market Demand Curve from Individual Data	In class 1/21
D6: Waiver Bids Round 2	In class 1/23
D7: Large Scale Waiver Market Analysis	In class 1/23
D8: Examining the Impact of a Tax	In class 1/28
D9: Tax Policy Analysis	In class 1/28
D10: Solving for BAU and Policy Equilibria	In class 1/30
D11: Finding Market Equilibria	In class 1/30
D12: Calculating Welfare Impacts	In class 2/4
D13: Detailed Tax Analysis	In class 2/4
D14: Calculating Distributional Impacts	In class 2/6
D15: Completing the Tax Analysis	In class 2/6
D16: Using Elasticities	In class 2/11
D17: Using Elasticities on the Supply Side	In class 2/13
D20: Cigarette Tax Analysis	In class 2/20
D21: Using Marginal Social Cost	In class 2/25
D22: Carbon Tax Analysis	In class 2/25
D23: Designing a Vaccination Policy	In class 2/27
D24: Impact of a Minimum Wage on Employees	In class 3/4
D25: Evaluating a Minimum Wage	In class 3/4
D27: Evaluating a Gas Price Ceiling	In class 3/6
D28: Cross Subsidies in Flood Insurance	In class 3/18
D29: Revising a Cross Subsidy at a Gym	In class 3/18
D30: Calculating Production Costs	In class 3/20
D31: Minimizing Production Costs	In class 3/25
D32: Building a Cost Curve	In class 3/25
D33: Presentation Feedback	In class 3/27
D34: Choosing the Level of Output	In class 4/3
D35: Efficiency in Production	In class 4/3
D36: Checking the Efficiency of a Monopoly	In class 4/3
D37: Warmup Present Value Calculations	In class 4/8
D38: PV and NPV of Streams of Payments	In class 4/10
D39: PV of Infinite Streams	In class 4/10
D40: PV of Long but Finite Streams of Payments	In class 4/10
D41: Bonds and Interest Rate Risk	In class 4/15
D42: Total Cost of Car Ownership Formulas	In class 4/15
D43: Car Total Cost of Ownership	In class 4/15
D44: Using a Decision Tree	In class 4/17
D45: Presentation Feedback	In class 4/22
D46: Evaluating Changes in Risks	In class 4/24
D47: Evaluating Changes in Risks over Time	In class 4/24

Weekly Assignments, Memos, and Flash Talks

Weekly 1: Math Refresher	Due Tue 1/21
Weekly 2: Adverse Selection in Health Insurance	Due Tue 1/28
Weekly 3: Analyzing a Gas Tax	Due Tue 2/11
Flash Talk 1	Due Mon 2/17 by 11:59 pm.
Memo 1: Gas Tax Analysis	Due Thu 2/27 [revised]
Weekly 4: Designing a Policy for a Network Externality	Due Thu 3/6
Weekly 5: Evaluating a Price Floor on Alcohol	Due Thu 3/20
Flash Talk 2	Due Wed 3/26 by 11:59 pm.
Weekly 6: Affordable Internet Service for Rural Areas	Due Thu 4/3
Flash Talk 3	Due Mon 4/21 by 11:59 pm.
Memo 2: Fuel Cell Analysis	Due Fri 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.
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 04/24/2025