This course is designed to be the senior capstone course in the Economics major. Because this is a seminar, class meetings will not be lecture-centered. Instead, each student will be expected to actively participate in class discussion, provide thoughtful comments on the readings, give polished oral presentations on their research, and offer detailed reflections on the work of their colleagues in the class. The intent is to provide the student with a bridge between being a passive member of an audience hearing economics and being an active scholar doing economics.
We have three major goals in the course. The first is to polish our research and writing skills. By the end of the semester, each student will have written a major research paper on the topic of their choice. Through the course, we will emphasize critical thinking, creative analysis, and professionalism. Success in the course will be measured not only by the quality of the final research paper, but also by the care and maturity with which the student engaged in the process of completing the paper.
The second goal is to read a number of general audience books on economics. This semester we will be read the following five books:
Pietra Rivoli, The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy, Wiley, 2nd edition, 2009.
Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom, University of Chicago Press, 2002.
Akerlof and Shiller, Animal Spirits, Princeton University Press, 2010.
Duflo and Banerjee, Poor Economics, Public Affairs, 2011.
Robert Reich, Saving Capitalism, 2016.
We hope that you will continue to read books like these for the rest of your lives, and to talk about them with your friends and family.
And the third goal is to prepare for life after Pitzer. We will spend much time thinking about and working on post-graduation skills. We work on our resumes, interview skills, and public speaking.
The course is taught for seniors majoring in economics. All students are required to have successfully completed introductory microeconomics and macroeconomics (Econ 51 & 52 or the equivalent) and have ideally completed microeconomic theory, macroeconomic theory, and econometrics (Econ 104, 105 and 125). Use of laptops and cell phones in the classroom is prohibited. When you are in class, you should be focused on the class. If you bring food to class, you must be willing to share it with everyone.
The requirements for the seminar will include class attendance and participation, a series of small assignments like response papers for each of the book readings, and a seminar paper of approximately 20 pages. Each of these will count for about a third of your final grade. The first draft of the seminar paper will be due by November 28. The final draft of the seminar paper will be due on Friday 14 December.
My office and office hours for the fall are as follows:
Fletcher 216 (909-607-3769)
Mondays (12:30-1:30), Tuesdays (4:00-5:00), Fridays (1:00-2:00) and by appointment.
Please join me for Economics Lunch on Fridays from 12:00 to 1:00pm. We are generally in the East Wing of McConnell Dining Hall.
Feel free to send me email at lyamane@pitzer.edu
or leave voicemail at the office 24 hours a day.
NOTE: There are two sections of the senior seminar with slightly different schedules. This is the schedule for Section 2.
| September | 5 |
Life After Pitzer |
10 |
Writing Research Papers, Resumes due |
|
12 |
Career Planning Workshop, Topics due |
|
17 |
Where to gather data, Data assignment due |
|
19 |
Federal Reserve Trip |
|
24 |
Resumes and Interviews |
|
26 |
Travels of a T-Shirt - first half |
|
October |
1 |
Literature Review |
|
3 |
Travels of a T-Shirt - second half |
8 |
Andrew Lo (MIT), Lit Review due |
|
10 |
Capitalism and Freedom - first half |
|
15 |
Theory |
|
17 |
Capitalism and Freedom - second half |
|
24 |
Evidence, Theory section due |
|
29 |
Speaker |
|
|
31 |
Poor Economics - first half, Empirical section due |
| November | 5 |
Poor Economics - second half |
|
7 |
Animal Spirits - first half |
12 |
Speaker |
|
14 |
Animal Spirits - second half |
|
|
19 |
Saving Capitalism - first half |
26 |
Saving Capitalism - second half |
|
28 |
Presentations |
|
| December | 3 |
Paper Presentations |
|
5 |
Paper Presentations |
10 |
Paper Presentations |
|
12 |
Paper Presentations |
1. Students will write an economics research paper
2. Students will read several books about economics
3. Students will prepare themselves for life after Pitzer
1. Keynes and Hayek rap
2. Glenn Hubbard and Bernanke
3. Fairness and Capuchin monkeys
4. Hari Kondabolu
Honnold Library Economic Research
Andrew Lo, "Can Financial Engineering Cure Cancer?," American Economic Review, May 2013.