DOCSLIB.ORG

Mathematical Economic Analysis 1

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Mathematical Economic Analysis 1 Mathematical Economic Analysis 1 Xun Tang MATHEMATICAL ECONOMIC George Zodrow ANALYSIS Associate Professors Marc Peter Dudey Contact Information Mallesh Pai Economics https://economics.rice.edu/ Assistant Professors 408 Kraft Hall Rossella Calvi 713-348-4381 Yinghua He Yunmi Kong George Zodrow Department Chair [email protected] Professors Emeriti Dagobert Brito Mahmoud A. El-Gamal John B. Bryant Director of Undergraduate Studies Donald L. Huddle [email protected] Peter Mieszkowski Ronald Soligo Mathematical Economic Analysis (MTEC) is a major offered by the Lecturers Economics Department. The MTEC major provides a specialized 16- Maria Bejan course program that includes most of the courses required for the regular Michele Biavati (ECON) major, but also requires additional preparation in mathematics Amelie Carlton and statistics, several relatively technical economics electives, and a James P. DeNicco capstone course. The MTEC major is recommended for students who intend to pursue Adjunct Professors graduate work in economics or plan to obtain a position in business or David R. Lairson government that requires extensive analytical and quantitative skills. John Michael Swint Bachelor's Program Adjunct Associate Professors • Bachelor of Arts (BA) Degree with a Major in Mathematical Economic Charles E. Begley Analysis (https://ga.rice.edu/programs-study/departments- Russell Green programs/social-sciences/mathematical-economic-analysis/ mathematical-economic-analysis-ba/) Adjunct Assistant Professors Mathematical Economic Analysis does not currently offer an academic John Diamond program at the graduate level. Kenneth Medlock For Rice University degree-granting programs: Chair, Department of Economics To view the list of official course offerings, please see Rice’s George Zodrow Course Catalog (https://courses.rice.edu/admweb/!SWKSCAT.cat? p_action=cata) Director of Undergraduate Studies To view the most recent semester’s course schedule, please see Rice's Course Schedule (https://courses.rice.edu/admweb/!SWKSCAT.cat) Mahmoud A. El-Gamal Professors Kerry E. Back Richard Thomas Boylan Bryan W. Brown James N. Brown Flávio Cunha Mahmoud A. El-Gamal Hülya Eraslan Jeremy Fox Peter Reginald Hartley Vivian Ho Ted Loch-Temzelides Isabelle Perrigne Robin Sickles 2021-2022 General Announcements PDF Generated 09/23/21 2 Mathematical Economic Analysis ECON 111 - AP/OTH CREDIT IN MICROECONOMICS Economics (ECON) Short Title: AP/OTH CREDIT MICROECONOMICS ECON 100 - PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMICS Department: Economics Short Title: PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMICS Grade Mode: Transfer Courses Department: Economics Course Type: Transfer Grade Mode: Standard Letter Credit Hours: 1-6 Course Type: Lecture Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Distribution Group: Distribution Group II Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students. Credit Hours: 3 Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Description: Provides transfer credit based on student performance Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students. on approved examinations in microeconomics, such as the Advanced Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level Placement microeconomics exam, the International Baccalaureate Description: Introduction to the basic concepts of microeconomics and higher-level economics exams, or the A-Level economics exam, or for an macroeconomics. Microeconomics component includes analysis of approved introductory microeconomics course. Approved credit counts supply and demand, consumer and producer behavior, and competitive toward total credit hours required for graduation, but does not count for and noncompetitive market equilibria, with applications to current distribution or toward the ECON or MTEC majors. Mutually Exclusive: policy issues. Macroeconomics component provides an overview of Cannot register for ECON 111 if student has credit for ECON 101. the determination of national output, employment, interest rates, and Mutually Exclusive: Cannot register for ECON 111 if student has credit for inflation, and analyzes monetary fiscal policies and international trade. ECON 101. Designed for both non-majors and majors. ECON 113 - AP/OTH CREDIT IN MACROECONOMICS ECON 101 - INTRODUCTION TO MICROECONOMICS Short Title: AP/OTH CREDIT MACROECONOMICS Short Title: INTRODUCTION TO MICROECONOMICS Department: Economics Department: Economics Grade Mode: Standard Letter Grade Mode: Standard Letter Course Type: Transfer Course Type: Lecture Credit Hours: 1-6 Distribution Group: Distribution Group II Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Credit Hours: 3 Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students. Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students. Description: Provides transfer credit based on student performance Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level on approved examinations in macroeconomics, such as the Advanced Description: Introduction to microeconomic analysis at a level suitable Placement macroeconomics exam, the International Baccalaureate for non-majors. Applies only for transfer credit and requires departmental higher-level economics exams, or the A-Level economics exam, or for an approval. Approved credit counts toward total credit hours required for approved introductory macroeconomics course. Approved credit counts graduation and for distribution, but does not count toward the ECON toward total credit hours required for graduation, but does not count for or MTEC majors. Mutually Exclusive: Cannot register for ECON 101 if distribution or toward the ECON or MTEC majors. Mutually Exclusive: student has credit for ECON 111. Mutually Exclusive: Cannot register for Cannot register for ECON 113 if student has credit for ECON 103. ECON 101 if student has credit for ECON 111. Mutually Exclusive: Cannot register for ECON 113 if student has credit for ECON 103 - INTRODUCTION TO MACROECONOMICS ECON 103. Short Title: INTRODUCTION TO MACROECONOMICS ECON 200 - MICROECONOMICS Department: Economics Short Title: MICROECONOMICS Grade Mode: Standard Letter Department: Economics Course Type: Lecture Grade Mode: Standard Letter Distribution Group: Distribution Group II Course Type: Lecture/Laboratory Credit Hours: 3 Distribution Group: Distribution Group II Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Credit Hours: 4 Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students. Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students. Description: Introduction to macroeconomic analysis at a level suitable Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level for non-majors. Applies only for transfer credit and requires departmental Prerequisite(s): ECON 100 and (MATH 102 (may be taken concurrently) or approval. Approved credit counts toward total credit hours required for MATH 106) graduation and for distribution, but does not count toward the ECON Description: Intermediate level analysis of theories of household behavior, or MTEC majors. Mutually Exclusive: Cannot register for ECON 103 if including demand for consumer goods, labor supply, and savings/ student has credit for ECON 112/ECON 113. Mutually Exclusive: Cannot investment decisions, and producer behavior including the supply of register for ECON 103 if student has credit for ECON 112/ECON 113. output and demands for labor, capital and other production inputs. Emphasizes individual and interactive decision making under resource constraints and discusses equilibria in competitive markets. MATH 102 may be taken concurrently with ECON 200. As much of the analysis in ECON 200 involves partial differentiation, MATH 212 is strongly recommended. Recommended Prerequisite(s): MATH 212 Mutually Exclusive: Cannot register for ECON 200 if student has credit for ECON 301. 2021-2022 General Announcements PDF Generated 09/23/21 Mathematical Economic Analysis 3 ECON 203 - MACROECONOMICS ECON 210 - BEHAVIORAL ECONOMICS Short Title: MACROECONOMICS Short Title: BEHAVIORAL ECONOMICS Department: Economics Department: Economics Grade Mode: Standard Letter Grade Mode: Standard Letter Course Type: Lecture Course Type: Lecture Distribution Group: Distribution Group II Distribution Group: Distribution Group II Credit Hours: 3 Credit Hours: 3 Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students. Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students. Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level Prerequisite(s): ECON 100 Prerequisite(s): ECON 100 or ECON 200 Description: Analyzes aggregate performance of the national economy Description: Examines behavioral economics, which seeks to insert more including output, inflation, interest rates, employment, the business cycle, behavioral realism into economic theory by incorporating into economic monetary and fiscal policy, and more generally the role of government models insights based on empirical observations from psychology, in influencing aggregate economic performance. Introduces both the sociology, and neuroscience. Emphasizes attempts by behavioral traditional aggregative only approach to Macroeconomics and the more economists to explain anomalies that depart from the predictions of recent New Classical
Load more

Recommended publications
  • When Does Behavioural Economics Really Matter?
    When does behavioural economics really matter? Ian McAuley, University of Canberra and Centre for Policy Development (www.cpd.org.au) Paper to accompany presentation to Behavioural Economics stream at Australian Economic Forum, August 2010. Summary Behavioural economics integrates the formal study of psychology, including social psychology, into economics. Its empirical base helps policy makers in understanding how economic actors behave in response to incentives in market transactions and in response to policy interventions. This paper commences with a short description of how behavioural economics fits into the general discipline of economics. The next section outlines the development of behavioural economics, including its development from considerations of individual psychology into the fields of neurology, social psychology and anthropology. It covers developments in general terms; there are excellent and by now well-known detailed descriptions of the specific findings of behavioural economics. The final section examines seven contemporary public policy issues with suggestions on how behavioural economics may help develop sound policy. In some cases Australian policy advisers are already using the findings of behavioural economics to advantage. It matters most of the time In public policy there is nothing novel about behavioural economics, but for a long time it has tended to be ignored in formal texts. Like Molière’s Monsieur Jourdain who was surprised to find he had been speaking prose all his life, economists have long been guided by implicit knowledge of behavioural economics, particularly in macroeconomics. Keynes, for example, understood perfectly the “money illusion” – people’s tendency to think of money in nominal rather than real terms – in his solution to unemployment.
    [Show full text]
  • The Process of Inflation Expectations' Formation
    The Process of Inflation Expectations’ * Formation Anna Loleyt** Ilya Gurov*** Bank of Russia July 2010 Abstract The aim of the investigation is to classify and systematize groups of economic agents with different types of inflation expectations in information economy. Particularly it’s found out that it is not feasible to exclude the possibility of current signals perception by economic agents. The analysis has also shown that there is an uncertainty in economy when authorities redeem monetary policy promises, but their action wouldn’t influence on average inflation expectations of economic agents. The investigation results testify the flat existence of agents in economy which are characterizing with rational, quasi-adaptive (including adaptive) and also arbitral inflation expectations. Keywords: information economy, information signal, information perception, agent belief in information, inflation expectations, quasi-adaptive expectations, arbitral expectations. *Acknowledgments: The first authors gratefully acknowledge support through the Bank of Russia. Especially we would like to thank Mr. Alexey V. Ulyukaev for helpful research assistance and Mrs. Nadezhda Yu. Ivanova for strong support. We are also grateful to Mr. Sergey S. Studnikov for his comments. **General Economic Department, Bank of Russia, 12 Neglinnaya Street, Moscow, 107016 Russia Faculty of Economics, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia Email: [email protected] ***General Economic Department, Bank of Russia, 12 Neglinnaya Street, Moscow, 107016 Russia Faculty of Economics, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia Email: [email protected] Abbreviations: a variety of information signals. W an element of a variety of information signals that is an information signal. w economic agents. x q a number of signals.
    [Show full text]
  • The Chilean Experience with Price-Cap Regulation [With Comments] Author(S): Rafael Di Tella, Alexander Dyck, Alexander Galetovic and William W
    Cost Reductions, Cost Padding, and Stock Market Prices: The Chilean Experience with Price-Cap Regulation [with Comments] Author(s): Rafael Di Tella, Alexander Dyck, Alexander Galetovic and William W. Hogan Source: Economía, Vol. 8, No. 2 (Spring, 2008), pp. 155-196 Published by: Brookings Institution Press Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/20065527 Accessed: 22-11-2019 16:55 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms Brookings Institution Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Economía This content downloaded from 206.253.207.235 on Fri, 22 Nov 2019 16:55:23 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms RAFAEL DI TELLA ALEXANDER DYCK Cost Reductions, Cost Padding, and Stock Market Prices: The Chilean Experience with Price-Cap Regulation Every four years, you feel you are going to war. Alejandro Jadresic, former Minister of Energy of Chile The flaws of traditional rate-of-return regulation are well known. They include a lack of incentives to reduce costs, as well as a tendency for firms to choose the wrong mix of inputs and to misreport costs in order to inflate the revenues allowed by the regulator.
    [Show full text]
  • Working Paper No. 517 What Are the Relative Macroeconomic Merits And
    Working Paper No. 517 What Are the Relative Macroeconomic Merits and Environmental Impacts of Direct Job Creation and Basic Income Guarantees? by Pavlina R. Tcherneva The Levy Economics Institute of Bard College October 2007 The Levy Economics Institute Working Paper Collection presents research in progress by Levy Institute scholars and conference participants. The purpose of the series is to disseminate ideas to and elicit comments from academics and professionals. The Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, founded in 1986, is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, independently funded research organization devoted to public service. Through scholarship and economic research it generates viable, effective public policy responses to important economic problems that profoundly affect the quality of life in the United States and abroad. The Levy Economics Institute P.O. Box 5000 Annandale-on-Hudson, NY 12504-5000 http://www.levy.org Copyright © The Levy Economics Institute 2007 All rights reserved. ABSTRACT There is a body of literature that favors universal and unconditional public assurance policies over those that are targeted and means-tested. Two such proposals—the basic income proposal and job guarantees—are discussed here. The paper evaluates the impact of each program on macroeconomic stability, arguing that direct job creation has inherent stabilization features that are lacking in the basic income proposal. A discussion of modern finance and labor market dynamics renders the latter proposal inherently inflationary, and potentially stagflationary. After studying the macroeconomic viability of each program, the paper elaborates on their environmental merits. It is argued that the “green” consequences of the basic income proposal are likely to emerge, not from its modus operandi, but from the tax schemes that have been advanced for its financing.
    [Show full text]
  • Behavioral Law & Economics and Consumer Financ
    Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Behavioral Economics Symposium Panel 2: Behavioral Law & Economics and Consumer Financial Protection The Role of Behavioral Economics in Consumer Protection Policy: Reflections of a Consumer Economist Janis K. Pappalardo, Ph.D.1 Assistant Director, Division of Consumer Protection Bureau of Economics, Federal Trade Commission Washington, DC September 19, 2019 1 The views expressed are those of the author and may not reflect the views of the Federal Trade Commission or any individual Commissioner. This statement draws from my prior work. I thank Jason Chen and Scott Syms for research assistance and many colleagues who have contributed to my understanding of this topic over the years, but I am responsible for any errors. Background on my Perspective Let me tell you a bit about my experience to shed light on my perspective. I joined the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Economics, Division of Consumer Protection in 1986 immediately after obtaining a Ph.D. from Cornell University with a major field in consumer economics and minor fields in industrial organization and statistics. As a staff economist, I analyzed consumer protection legal and policy matters related to unfair or deceptive practices, provided expert declarations for litigation, and conducted research on information regulation. I have published work in the American Economic Review: Papers & Proceedings, Journal of Consumer Affairs, Antitrust Law Journal, Review of Industrial Organization, and Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, from which I received two outstanding article awards. I serve on the editorial review boards of the Journal of Consumer Affairs and the Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, and I am co-editing a symposium on the economics of consumer protection for Economic Inquiry.
    [Show full text]
  • Recent Applications of Economic Theory in Information Technology Research *
    Deciskm Support Systems 8 (1992) 365-386 365 North-Holland Recent applications of economic theory in Information Technology research * J. Yannis Bakos 1. Introduction Unit'ersity ~ff California, lrt'ine, CA, USA Recently there has been heightened interest Chris F. Kemerer on the part of both academicians and practition- ers concerning the economics of Information Massachusetts Institute ~ Technology., Cambridge, MA, USA Technology (IT), where IT is defined as systems for providing context-sensitive data [9]. In part, Academicians and practitioners are becoming increasingly interested in the economics of Information Technology (IT). this interest stems from the increasingly large In part, this interest stems from the increased role that IT role that IT plays in the strategic thinking of most now plays in the strategic thinking of most large organizations, large organizations, and in the significant dollar and from the significant dollar costs expended by these orga- costs now expended by organizations on IT. For nizations on IT. Naturally enough, researchers are turning to example, Kriebel notes that roughly 50% of new economics as a reference discipline in their attempt to answer questions concerning both the value added by IT and the true capital investment by major US corporations is in cost of providing IT resources. This increased interest in the IT [92]. As organizations have improved their economics of IT is manifested in the application of a number of aspects of economic theory in recent information systems J. Yannis Bakos is an assistant pro- research, leading to results that have appeared in a wide fessor of management at the Gradu- variety of publication outlets This article reviews this work ate School of Management, Univer- and provides a systematic categorization as a first step in sity of California, Irvine.
    [Show full text]
  • Economics Chair: Marian Manic Sai Mamunuru Halefom Belay Rosie Mueller Jan P
    Economics Chair: Marian Manic Sai Mamunuru Halefom Belay Rosie Mueller Jan P. Crouter Jason Ralston Denise Hazlett Economics is the study of how people and societies choose to use scarce resources in the production of goods and services, and of the distribution of these goods and services among individuals and groups in society. The economics major requires coursework in economics and mathematics. A student who enters Whitman with no prior college-level work in either of these areas would need to complete math 125 and complete at least 35 credits in economics. Learning Goals: Upon graduation, a student will be able to demonstrate: Major-Specific Areas of Knowledge o Students should have an understanding of how economics can be used to explain and interpret a) the behavior of agents (for example, firms and households) and the markets or settings in which they interact, and b) the structure and performance of national and global economies. Students should also be able to evaluate the structure, internal consistency and logic of economic models and the role of assumptions in economic arguments. Communication o Students should be able to communicate effectively in written, spoken, graphical, and quantitative form about specific economic issues. Critical Reasoning o Students should be able to apply economic analysis to evaluate everyday problems and policy proposals and to assess the assumptions, reasoning and evidence contained in an economic argument. Quantitative Analysis o Students should grasp the mathematical logic of standard macroeconomic and microeconomic models. o Students should know how to use empirical evidence to evaluate an economic argument (including the collection of relevant data for empirical analysis, statistical analysis, and interpretation of the results of the analysis) and how to understand empirical analyses of others.
    [Show full text]
  • 1. Introduction : (A) What Is Public Economics? First, a Very Brief and Broad Outline of the Structure of Government Finance, Pa
    1. Introduction : (a) What is Public Economics? First, a very brief and broad outline of the structure of government finance, particularly government revenue sources, in Canada. In other words, \what level of government levies what tax, and how important are the different taxes?". Before that, an important message. This course is a fourth{year level course. The pre- requisites are intermediate microeconomics, and intermediate macroeconomics : AP/ECON 2300, 2350, 2400 and 2450, or their equivalents. Those prerequisites are meant to be taken seriously. In particular, you will find out very soon that this course is a course in the application of microe- conomic theory. It is microeconomic theory applied to taxation. Some of the concepts used in Econ 2300 and 2350 are going to get used here again | every day. Indifference curves, income and substitution effects, general equilibrium prices : these will keep popping up. So this is a double warning : (i) you have to have the formal prerequisites in order to get in to the course, and (ii) the course content is going to keep reminding you of material from Econ 2300 and 2350. Why is this course full of microeconomic theory? Because economists think that the concepts of microeconomic theory are useful in analyzing the behaviour of consumers and workers and firms and voters. And because much of the subject matter of the course is the effects of taxation on the behaviour of these economic agents, and the analysis of how the behaviour of these economic agents should affect the government's choices of taxes. Why microeconomics? After all, there is something pretty public about most of the material in macroeconomics.
    [Show full text]
  • Economics 230A Public Sector Microeconomics
    University of California, Berkeley Professor Alan Auerbach Department of Economics 525 Evans Hall Fall 2005 3-0711; auerbach@econ ECONOMICS 230A PUBLIC SECTOR MICROECONOMICS This is the first of two courses in the Public Economics sequence. It will cover core material on taxation, public expenditures and public choice, and conclude with a consideration of the effects of capital income taxation on the behavior of households and firms. Economics 230B, the second semester in the sequence, will extend the discussion of optimal income taxation and consider more fully the behavioral effects of government policy and the institutional characteristics of important U.S. federal taxes and expenditure programs Class meetings: Tuesdays 9-11, 639 Evans Hall Office hours: Mondays, 10:00-11:30, and by appointment Prerequisites: This course should normally be taken after the completion of first-year Ph. D. courses in economic theory and econometrics. Requirements: Problem sets (2) - 30% Paper (5 page review) - 20% Final examination - 50% There is no required textbook for this course. All starred readings below are required and are either included in the course reader or, where noted, available on the web. Non-starred material will be useful for further reading on topics of interest and preparation for the public economics field examination. The following texts and collections, selections from which appear on the reading list, are also useful for background reference: A. Atkinson and J. Stiglitz, Lectures on Public Economics, McGraw-Hill (1980) A. Auerbach and M. Feldstein, eds., Handbook of Public Economics, North-Holland, vol. 1 (1985), vol. 2 (1987), vol. 3 (2002) and vol.
    [Show full text]
  • An Introduction to the Law & Economics of Information
    Columbia Law School Scholarship Archive Faculty Scholarship Faculty Publications 2014 An Introduction to the Law & Economics of Information Tim Wu Columbia Law School, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/faculty_scholarship Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Tim Wu, An Introduction to the Law & Economics of Information, COLUMBIA LAW & ECONOMICS WORKING PAPER NO. 482; COLUMBIA PUBLIC LAW RESEARCH PAPER NO. 14-399 (2014). Available at: https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/faculty_scholarship/1863 This Working Paper is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Publications at Scholarship Archive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Scholarship by an authorized administrator of Scholarship Archive. For more information, please contact [email protected]. An Introduction to the Law & Economics of Information Tim Wu† Information is an extremely complex phenomenon not fully understood by any branch of learning, yet one of enormous importance to contemporary economics, science, and technology. (Gleick 2012, Pierce 1980). Beginning from the 1970s, economists and legal scholars, relying on a simplified “public good” model of information, have constructed an impressively extensive body of scholarship devoted to the relationship between law and information. The public good model tends to justify law, such as the intellectual property laws or various forms of securities regulation that seek to incentivize the production of information or its broader dissemination. A review of the last several decades of scholarship based on the public choice model suggests the following two trends. First, scholars have extended the public good model of information to an ever-increasing number of fields where law and information intersect.
    [Show full text]
  • Government Major Modified – Type B
    Government Major Modified – Type B Prerequisites (2 courses): o GOVT 10, ECON 10, MATH 10, or QSS 015 (circle one) _________ Term o Economics 1: The Price System: Analysis, problems, and policies _________ Term Courses required to complete the Government Major modified (10 courses total) 1. Government Introductory Courses (2 courses): o Government 6: Political Ideas ________ Term o Government ____: _________________________ (GOVT 3, 4, 5) ________ Term 2. Government Upper Level course (Midlevel OR Seminar - 2 courses): o Government ____: _________________________ ________ Term o Government ____: _________________________ ________ Term 3. Government Seminars (2 seminars, which are the culminating experience): o Government ____: _________________________ (seminar) ________ Term o Government ____: _________________________ (seminar) ________ Term Please check list of Government Seminars on the back. 4. Economics and Philosophy (4 courses): o Economics______: _________________________ ________ Term o Economics______: _________________________ ________ Term o Philosophy______: _________________________ ________ Term o Philosophy______: _________________________ ________ Term **Important: check prerequisites before enrolling** Please check list of Political Economy and Political Theory courses on the back This form needs to be approved by the Department of Government Vice-Chair by the end of the sophomore year. Plan of Study Form_GOVT_2020 Government Midlevel courses: • Choose any government courses levels 20’s to GOVT 60’s The Government Department
    [Show full text]
  • Bitcoin As Money?
    No. 14-4 Bitcoin as Money? Stephanie Lo and J. Christina Wang Abstract: The spectacular rise late last year in the price of bitcoin, the dominant virtual currency, has attracted much public attention as well as scholarly interest. This policy brief discusses how some features of bitcoin, as designed and executed to date, have hampered its ability to perform the functions required of a fiat money––as a medium of exchange, unit of account, and store of value. Furthermore, we document how various forms of intermediaries have emerged and evolved within the Bitcoin network, particularly noting the convergence toward concentrated processing, both on and off the blockchain. We argue that much of this process would have been predicted by established theories of financial intermediation, and we consider the theories’ implication for the future evolution of intermediaries serving users of bitcoin or alternative virtual currencies. We then compare Bitcoin with other innovations to facilitate payment services, from competing alternative digital currencies to electronic payment protocols. We conclude with a broad consideration of the major factors that will likely shape the future development of Bitcoin versus other alternative payment systems. We predict that Bitcoin’s lasting legacy will be the innovations it has spurred to payment technology, although the payment system will remain dominated by large processors because of economies of scale. Keywords: money, medium of exchange, liquidity, speculative bubble JEL Classifications: E41, E42, E51, G12, G21. Stephanie Lo is a Ph.D. student at the economics department of Harvard University. J. Christina Wang is a senior economist and policy advisor in the research department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    [Show full text]