June 21, 2025, 9:00 PM CDT:

  • Oscar presents: Hosios (1988) On the Efficiency of Matching and Related Models of Search and Bargaining
  • Andrew presents: Minsky (1977) Financial Instability Hypothesis

June 14, 2025, 9:00 PM CDT:

  • Bernanke (2013) A Century of US Central Banking- Goals, Frameworks, Accountability
  • Sharpe (1964) Capital Asset Prices_ A Theory of Market Equilibrium under Conditions of Risk

June 7, 2025, 8:00 PM CDT:

  • Alexandra presents: Andreoni (1990) Impure Altruism and Donations to Public Goods

June 1, 2025, 8:00 PM CDT:

Casual discussion on economics. Bring your own readings!

  • Duflo (2018) The Economist as Plumber
  • Rubinstein (2017) Comments on Economic Models, Economics, and Economists
  • Mankiw (2006) The Macroeconomist as Scientist and Engineer
  • Rubinstein (2006) Dilemmas of an Economic Theorist
  • Roth (2003) The Economist as Engineer: Game Theory, Experimentation, and Computation as Tools for Design Economics
  • Becker (1976) The Economic Approach to Human Behavior
  • Friedman (1953) The Methodology of Positive Economics — excerpts
  • EconomicsStackExchange: What is the point of all the models in an economics degree?

(Friedman (1953) and Becker (1976) are required readings in ECON20010.)

Suggested Readings on Mathematics:

  • Thurston (2010) Mathematical Education, foreword in The Best Writing on Mathematics 2010, ed. Mircea Pitici
  • Thurston (1994) On Proof and Progress in Mathematics
  • Rees (1962) The Nature of Mathematics
  • Russell (1901) Mathematics and the Metaphysicians
  • MathOverflow: What’s a Mathematician to Do?

May 19, 2025:

  • Oscar presented: Conley and Ligon (2002) Economic Distance and Cross-Country Spillovers

May 12, 2025:

  • Oscar presented: Venkatesh (2001) Chicagos Pragmatic Planners
  • Alexandra presented: Gelbach (2006) Public Schooling for Young Children and Maternal Labor Supply

May 5, 2025:

  • Borjas (1987) Self Selection Earnings Immigrants

April 14, 2025:

  • Thistlethwaite and Campbell (1960) Regression-discontinuity analysis: An alternative to the ex post facto experiment
  • Felix presented: Regression Discontinuity
  • Aden presented: Synthetic Control

April 7, 2025:

  • Lucas (1976) Econometric policy evaluation: A critique

March 31, 2025:

  • Friedman (1962) Capitalism and Freedom (Chapters 2–3)
  • Alchian and Demsetz (1972) Production, Information Costs, and Economic Organization

March 23, 2025:

  • Friedman (1962) Capitalism and Freedom (Chapter 1)
  • Varian (1980) A Model of Sales

March 2, 2025:

  • Markowitz (1952) Portfolio Selection
  • Felix Liu presented: Nash (1950) The Bargaining Problem

February 22, 2025:

  • Hayek (1945) The Use of Knowledge in Society
  • Aden Chen presented: Prospect Theory
  • Andrew Wang presented: Almås (2012) Adjusting for Age Effects in Cross-sectional Distributions

February 16, 2025:

  • Card and Krueger (1993) Minimum Wages and Employment: A Case Study of the Fast-Food Industry in New Jersey and Pennsylvania
  • Sam and Grace Hwang presented: McLeay, Radia, and Thomas (2014) Money Creation in the Modern Economy
  • Felix Liu presented: Aumann (1976) Agreeing to Disagree and the No-Trade Theorem

February 9, 2025:

  • Aumann (1976) Agreeing to Disagree
  • Myerson (1981) Optimal Auction Design (up to Lemma 1, the revelation principle)
  • Spence (1973) Job Market Signaling

January 30, 2025:

  • Akerlof (1970) Market for Lemons
  • Gale and Shapley (1962) College Admissions and the Stability of Marriage