Re: Studying Economics
"Gray, Lynn" wrote: > > But in terms of getting into a high ranking grad school isn't going to the > right undergraduate institution important? > > Lynn You can get into a top graduate school from any decent undergraduate program in the country so long as your grades are superb and you have prepared yourself well for the intense math of the first several years. Undergraduate education is very similar everywhere - especially in the standard math classes that you will want to take to prepare for grad school (see earlier posts). I taught at Ball State University for a number of years which is far from the best school in Indiana let alone anywhere else. Yet, we were able to send students to Chicago when those students had prepared appropriately. Of course, if you go to an undergraduate institution like Ball State and you want to go to Chicago then you had better excel. Alex -- Dr. Alexander Tabarrok Vice President and Director of Research The Independent Institute 100 Swan Way Oakland, CA, 94621-1428 Tel. 510-632-1366, FAX: 510-568-6040 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
RE: Studying Economics
Not as much as you think. Of course, if you go to a completely unchallenging school your chance for a top grad school will drop. But grad school committees have pretty good information on their hands when it comes to econ: math grades, math GRE, econ subject GRE. They also have letters of rec. With all that information, it's usually pretty clear who is competitive and who is not and much of that, except letters of rec, you can get from many different schools. An interesting note is that research on college choice shows that a handful of factors have strong effects on where you go to college: academic ability, price and geography. The number of people who choose colleges for specialized purposes like studying classics or getting into grad school is irrelevant in the big scheme of things. It's smarts+location+price. Fabio > But in terms of getting into a high ranking grad school isn't going to the > right undergraduate institution important? > > Lynn
RE: Studying Economics
But in terms of getting into a high ranking grad school isn't going to the right undergraduate institution important? Lynn -Original Message- From: Alex Tabarrok [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Friday, November 02, 2001 11:16 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject:Re: Studying Economics It's much less important where you get your undergraduate education than where you get your graduate education. Any "good" school will do and this includes many smaller colleges. It is extremely unlikely that the extra expenses of Harvard are worthwhile unless you are going into business and want to make contacts. Alex -- Dr. Alexander Tabarrok Vice President and Director of Research The Independent Institute 100 Swan Way Oakland, CA, 94621-1428 Tel. 510-632-1366, FAX: 510-568-6040 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Studying Economics
let me add another note: it's important to choose an undergraduate college where you will do well and you like the atmosphere. Once you have a publication or two, nobody will care that you got a C in graduate econometrics at MIT, but your undergraduate GPA is used for all sorts of things. So choose a college where the atmosphere is close to what you want (ie, choose bennington if you are into art) and a college where the average SAT somewhat resembles your own. Fabio On Fri, 2 Nov 2001, Alex Tabarrok wrote: > It's much less important where you get your undergraduate education > than where you get your graduate education. Any "good" school will do > and this includes many smaller colleges. It is extremely unlikely that > the extra expenses of Harvard are worthwhile unless you are going into > business and want to make contacts. > > Alex > -- > Dr. Alexander Tabarrok > Vice President and Director of Research > The Independent Institute > 100 Swan Way > Oakland, CA, 94621-1428 > Tel. 510-632-1366, FAX: 510-568-6040 > Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >
Re: Studying Economics
It's much less important where you get your undergraduate education than where you get your graduate education. Any "good" school will do and this includes many smaller colleges. It is extremely unlikely that the extra expenses of Harvard are worthwhile unless you are going into business and want to make contacts. Alex -- Dr. Alexander Tabarrok Vice President and Director of Research The Independent Institute 100 Swan Way Oakland, CA, 94621-1428 Tel. 510-632-1366, FAX: 510-568-6040 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Austrian school and universalist economics
On Friday, November 02, 2001 8:57 AM Fred Foldvary [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Austrian economics is not specifically capital-based, as there is > much more to it, and has more fundamental features, but as a > distinction from other schools of thought, indeed Austrian > capital-goods theory has not been integrated into the mainstream and > hence makes Austrian theory distinctive. I agree, though the Austrian school has a more developed capital theory than any other school. IIRC, capital theory was basically abandoned by the other schools in the 1930s... (Perhaps someone more widely read could tell us if I'm misinformed here.) > As to one's approach to economics, is it not the best course to > attempt to integrate the warranted theory from all schools to create > a universalist school? I agree here, though the focus on capital pays dividends in spades, in my opinion, just as, e.g., evolutionary theory does not explain or exhaust all biological phenomena, but it helps with so much. Cheers! Daniel Ust http://uweb.superlink.net/neptune/
Re: Tax with positive growth effect
- Original Message - From: "Fred Foldvary" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, November 02, 2001 9:25 AM Subject: Re: Tax with positive growth effect > > Whereas if there were no tax (i.e. if it was voluntary), individual > businesses would be reluctant to use their money that way, even if > they knew that everybody would be better off if everybody invested > their share into the collective fund > > (prisoner's paradox). > > Gustavo > > Does the prisoners' paradox not disappear when the game is on-going > and the participants may communicate? Why would a trade association > with mutual benefits not work? > The prisoner's dilemma does not tend to disappear when there are many participants. It pays off to be a leech. If there are enough leeches, participation in a trade association may cost too much for the benefits it provides. It would be more beneficial to not participate in the trade association and reap the benefits anyway... in this case, the people who do participate end up paying for the ones that don't. Again, this is because the return is collective while the investment is invididual. (unless we have a mandatory investment, i.e. a tax) Gustavo
RE: Austrian school and universalist economics
Well Physics has been attempting a comparable feat in Unified Field Theory, linking Quantum Mechanics and Einsteinian Macro-Level Physics for years, so good luck Economists! -Original Message- From: Fred Foldvary [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Friday, November 02, 2001 8:58 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Austrian school and universalist economics > Roger Garrison has made a very good cause for the Austrian > school to remain a separate school. He classifies schools as being > labour-based (Keynesian), money-based (Monetarists) and capital- > based (Austrian). > Pierre le Roux Austrian economics is not specifically capital-based, as there is much more to it, and has more fundamental features, but as a distinction from other schools of thought, indeed Austrian capital-goods theory has not been integrated into the mainstream and hence makes Austrian theory distinctive. As to one's approach to economics, is it not the best course to attempt to integrate the warranted theory from all schools to create a universalist school? Fred Foldvary = [EMAIL PROTECTED] __ Do You Yahoo!? Find a job, post your resume. http://careers.yahoo.com
Re: Tax with positive growth effect
> Whereas if there were no tax (i.e. if it was voluntary), individual businesses would be reluctant to use their money that way, even if they knew that everybody would be better off if everybody invested their share into the collective fund > (prisoner's paradox). > Gustavo Does the prisoners' paradox not disappear when the game is on-going and the participants may communicate? Why would a trade association with mutual benefits not work? Fred Foldvary = [EMAIL PROTECTED] __ Do You Yahoo!? Find a job, post your resume. http://careers.yahoo.com
Re: Tax with positive growth effect
>> cost of replacing the building, subtracts depreciation, and that >> amount is subtracted from the prevailing market prices in that >> neighborhood to estimate the land value. > I agree, but you are talking about is price of land, not its value; > that is market price!!!The difference makes the difference. > Alexander Guerrero I don't understand what difference you are referring to. Fred Foldvary = [EMAIL PROTECTED] __ Do You Yahoo!? Find a job, post your resume. http://careers.yahoo.com
Re: Tax with positive growth effect
--- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > For a very brief period of time several places in South Carolina > tried to tax idle land. The accessor would try to figure out what the most valuable improvement to the land would be and then asses based on that. It was a horrible failure. > What did happen is that landlords would throw up the absolute cheapest building that he could in order to avoid the assesor coming up with some idea.< > Mitch That is an incorrect way of assessing land value. The correct way to estimate the land value based on its best use is to use typical neighboring land values. The particular improvements of the particular plot under consideration should be utterly ignored. The site owner would then have no incentive to put up something just for show. Hong Kong is an example of successful public revenue from land value or rent. Under the UK colonial government, the government there obtained much of its revenue from leasing sites, which in turn were leased for 99 years from China until 1997. The rental revenue enables the administration to have low taxes (they could have zero taxes). Sidney, Australia, is among several cities world-wide which exempt improvements from the real-estate property tax, taxing only the land value. It does not seem to me that there have been any ill effects there or other cities that exempt improvements. Fred Foldvary = [EMAIL PROTECTED] __ Do You Yahoo!? Find a job, post your resume. http://careers.yahoo.com
Re: Tax with positive growth effect
> > No, the whole rationale for taxing land value is that it does not > > matter what the site owner does with the land. >What you are proposing is a kind of capital tax. I do not have >anything against it, but your face the economic consequences of >taxing "capital". No, because land is not capital. Fred Foldvary = [EMAIL PROTECTED] __ Do You Yahoo!? Find a job, post your resume. http://careers.yahoo.com
Austrian school and universalist economics
> Roger Garrison has made a very good cause for the Austrian > school to remain a separate school. He classifies schools as being > labour-based (Keynesian), money-based (Monetarists) and capital- > based (Austrian). > Pierre le Roux Austrian economics is not specifically capital-based, as there is much more to it, and has more fundamental features, but as a distinction from other schools of thought, indeed Austrian capital-goods theory has not been integrated into the mainstream and hence makes Austrian theory distinctive. As to one's approach to economics, is it not the best course to attempt to integrate the warranted theory from all schools to create a universalist school? Fred Foldvary = [EMAIL PROTECTED] __ Do You Yahoo!? Find a job, post your resume. http://careers.yahoo.com
Re: Elasticities and international trade
One interesting thing is that many collegues do not make differences between tradables and nontradables. which in small countries you coud use a rule of 6:4 in termes of prices. So it is very difficult to estimate elasticities accordingly with Marshall-Lerner conventions, since the price you are usin is an "aggregate" of tradeables and nontradebles whose adjutment path it is very different in both cases. At the end of the day devaluating the currency to become more "competitive" you are gaining at expenses of workers real income (wages) reductions, that it bread for today hunger for tomorrow. There is more in this regard but for the case of elasticities is worth to mention that we economists aggregate everything so we can get to the end with aggregated conclusions!!!. Alexander Guerrero Oxford - Original Message - From: "LE ROUX P" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, November 02, 2001 7:27 AM Subject: RE: Elasticities and international trade > South Africa is a typical small open Economy. > Its currency the Rand stands at R8.54 to the dollar at present. It > fell from R0.96 in 1979 to its present value. > Mainstream economists all argue that its good since exports are > stimulated (price thus elastic) and imports discouraged (also price > elastic). > My studies (econometric) seems to indicate that both are actually > more income elastic dependent thus on overseas growth for > exports and local growth for imports. The gains are thus purely in > extra rands from exports but losses ito an increased import bill. > My problem is this: SA is a price-taker internationally and thus > cannot influence the price. A devaluating currency will this only > benefit the exporter in Rand terms since the price in $ terms > (international price) remains the same. I must be missing > something since my colleagues still beg to differ. > Please advice me on where my arguments are going wrong. > Kind Regards, > Pierre le Roux > Sub-Head > Dept Economics, > P/bag x613, > Vista University, > Port Elizabeth 6000 > South Africa > office 041 4083145 > CELL 0822024819 > FAX 041 4641563 >
