Materials to substitute for class next Tuesday

We won't be having class on Tuesday, as I will be out of town.  I have made a video for you to watch and listen to. In the past when I've made videos of this sort, I took some effort in the production so your eyes would focus on the right stuff on the screen.  I didn't do it this time - just not enough time to do something more professional.  So this will have to do.  The content is pretty much right but the production is not. 

The associated PowerPoint can be read on its own and might be useful to download. 

Then do the softball quiz in Moodle which will be available from Monday at noon till Wednesday at 11 PM.  The purpose of this quiz is not to test you on the presentation.  It is to give some bonus points to students who take it and take that as a gift as apology for missing class.

The Excel Homework with the Appropriate Formulas but with the Answers Omitted.

I have now completed the stuff to serve as substitute for class on Tuesday 11/7.  We won't be having class then.  In the next post I will provide the information for that.  

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As promised, here is the Excel file with the formulas (most of which are in column A).  I would appreciate learning from any and all of you whether you try to produce such formulas yourself before answering the questions, or if you do that all in your head without writing any of it down.  If you care to respond to that, please do so by commenting on this post, or if you prefer your privacy you can do it by email.  

Excel Homework Due 11/8 at 11 PM

The homework is on bargaining. Note that M&R have a discussion of bargaining in Chapter 5. You should read that. The model they go through has both the buyer and seller having two types. In the Excel homework, the model has a continuum of types on each side of the bargain. In that sense it is harder but also more elegant. And, I believe, it should give you a better understanding about the relationship between the private information and the inefficiency created.

There is a fiction in the model that helps to understand what is going on. The fiction is that there is a third party - an arbitrator - who provides rules for how the bargaining will happen, when trade will occur, and at what price. The fiction is necessary because the model is static. Real world negotiations happen over time and to model that correctly one needs a dynamic model. There are such models, but they are well beyond the scope of our class. So we will keep the modeling relatively simple and wave our hands about what happens in real world bargaining.

 There is a rather extensive discussion in this homework before you log in. I encourage you to read that carefully and not gloss over it. It is about how to bargain well and what happens in real-world procurement, which entails a good deal of such bargaining. There are practical lessons here that you can carry over to your work life, even if you don't engage in procurement. .

Attending to your cultural education - in addition to learning economics.

This being Halloween, if you've never heard the Monster Mash before, you should watch this video.  It is from 1962.

And, since you haven't been laughing at my joke in class in spite of the impeccable delivery, here is some modest creativity from the professor, inspired by Aaron Judge winning the Home Run Derby at that All-Star game this year.  It is called The Derby Smash.  

Lanny on Learning: The Derby Smash - Lyrics via kwout

A totally optional discussion group for the spring semester.

I normally make this announcement at the start of December, but this year we seem to have a large number of students who will graduate after this semester.  I wanted those students to be aware of this possibility, in case you do stick around town for the spring.  You would be more than welcome to be part of the group, although you would no longer be enrolled at the U of I. 

The last few years I have invited students to join me in the spring for a weekly discussion group on the topic of how they might get more out of their learning.  Four years ago, I didn't get enough nibbles.  Three years ago I had three takers.  We met each Friday afternoon throughout the spring semester.  It was an interesting experience, unusual for both the students and for me.  Two years ago I had two takers initially, but one soon dropped.  The other person was extremely shy and it was kind of odd to have conversations with him.  We went for a while but didn't meet quite as regularly. Likewise, last year I had one student in the spring and it was more mentoring than discussion group.  I have another student this fall, where again it is more mentoring.  The mentoring thing is okay, but for students with an eye on the job market, I'm probably not the right person to mentor that.  I think the discussion group approach would be more interesting, but it does take a few students to make a group.

This year I'd like to do something similar but on a different topic.  I maintain a reading list on leadership and learning.  We might start with a few pieces from there to help us find a rhythm.  After that, I'd hope that students would offer up their own pieces for us to discuss.

When the group seemed to work well we went for somewhere between 90 minutes and two hours and met in BIF.  That much of what we did I'd like to keep.  Based on that experience the ideal number of students is at least 3 and probably no more than 5.  If we can get that this time around we'll be a go.

If you are interested you can indicate that either by commenting on this post (and maybe that will attract some others to do likewise) or you can send me an email.

Let me say one more thing about scheduling.  I am not teaching next semester so I am pretty happy to meet whenever is convenient for the group (if such a time exists).  But I would prefer daytime to evening.  You should probably treat that as a firm constraint in assessing your own availability for this.

A few things

1.  I plan to spend the first part of class today explaining what student teams need to do next with their class project.  If your team is not represented in class today, it will be at a disadvantage moving forward. 

2.  In a little while I will do an update to the grade book in Moodle.  This will include one Excel homework on the math of risk, one blog post on managing income risk, and an update on the bonus points for completing surveys about the class session.

3.  There will not be any more bonus points allocated of the sort described above.  I have now made a different form that you can use for commenting about a class session.  This is not for credit, but I do appreciate getting the feedback.  There is a new tab on the homepage called Feedback On Class where you can find the form. 

First Drafts In - A Little Droll Humor

I am just back from a nice tailgate at a friends house (so we avoided the bad weather).  The first quarter of the game had ended and the Illini are down only one touchdown - a moral victory. 

Every team has now submitted a draft.  I relabeled many of the submissions so the team name comes first.

At the tailgate, my reputation is to crack jokes in context (not canned ones as I have told in class) and I did that and then some.  That coupled with the very good food has tired me out.  So it is nap time for me.  After that, I will start in on reviewing the papers.

I did want to point out that some of you said funny lines, I think inadvertently.  There were a couple of teams that labeled their submissions as Rough Draft, which might be accurate but isn't very good marketing.  What am I to think of it, given that label.  Some others, wishing to be polite in their messages, said - enjoy your weekend.  If you were reviewing student papers, would you enjoy the weekend?

Remember that your professor is a princess, as in the story.  Your writing is the pea.