MIT: Independent Activities Period: IAP

IAP 2015 Activities by Sponsor - Economics

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Basic Economics of E-Retail and Amazon.com

Glenn Ellison, Professor

Add to Calendar Jan/20 Tue 10:30AM-11:30AM E17-139

Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up

This lecture will discuss some of the basic models that economists use to think about the retail industry and apply these principles to help understand the development of Internet retail, Amazon's role in the industry, and why there have been large swings in Amazon's market value.

Sponsor(s): Economics
Contact: Linda Woodbury, E18-201D, 617 253-8885, LWOODBUR@MIT.EDU


Careers: Faculty Positions for Economists in Business Schools

Roberto Rigobon

Add to Calendar Jan/07 Wed 01:00PM-02:30PM E51-145

Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up

This session will discuss how several kinds of economists (in fields such as IO, applied micro, applied theory, macro, and international) have found productive professorial careers in several kinds of faculty groups (including economics, strategy, political economy, and international management) within several kinds of business schools (from Chicago to HBS, and many in between). Of course, a professorial career includes both research and teaching, so we will discuss how both may be somewhat different than in an economics department, but also how in many business schools the differences compared to a department are greater in terms of teaching than research.

Sponsor(s): Economics, Academic Media Production Services
Contact: Linda Woodbury, E18-201D, 617 253-8885, LWOODBUR@MIT.EDU


Charter School Effectiveness in New Orleans

Parag Pathak, Professor

Add to Calendar Jan/13 Tue 02:30PM-04:00PM E17-133

Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up

In Fall 2014, the Recovery School District in New Orleans became the first district in the United States to become 100% charter.  In this talk, I will review some recent research from MIT’s School Effectiveness and Inequality Initiative (SEII) on the effects of these reforms on student achievement.  

Sponsor(s): Economics
Contact: Linda Woodbury, E18-201D, 617 253-8885, LWOODBUR@MIT.EDU


Improving Healthcare Delivery Using Randomized Evaluation

Amy Finkelstein, Professor

Add to Calendar Jan/27 Tue 01:00PM-02:30PM E25-117

Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up

This talk will describe the results from the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment: a randomized evaluation of the effects of covering low income uninsured adults with Medicaid. It will also discuss strategies and opportunities for increasing the use of randomized evaluations to study important questions in US health policy.

Sponsor(s): Economics
Contact: Linda Woodbury, E18-201D, 617 253-8885, LWOODBUR@MIT.EDU


Intellectual Property Rights and Innovation: Connecting Theory with Data

Heidi Williams, Professor

Add to Calendar Jan/26 Mon 01:00PM-02:00PM E25-117

Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up

This IAP talk with discuss how intellectual property rights -- like the patent system -- affect the rate and direction of research and development (R&D).  It will focus in part on reporting research findings that explore how variation in the length of patent protection for new drugs affects the allocation of R&D spending.

Sponsor(s): Economics
Contact: Linda Woodbury, E18-201D, 617 253-8885, LWOODBUR@MIT.EDU


Match Quality, Search, and the Internet Market for Used Books

Sara Ellison, Senior Lecturer

Add to Calendar Jan/14 Wed 10:30AM-12:00PM E17-136

Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up

This talk will cover economic issues in the used book market, in particular, changes in competition and consumer search facilitated by the migration of used book sales from brick and mortar stores to online markets.  The talk will be based on new research by Glenn Ellison and Sara Fisher Ellison.  It will be appropriate for undergraduate and graduate attendees.

Sponsor(s): Economics
Contact: Linda Woodbury, E18-201D, 617 253-8885, LWOODBUR@MIT.EDU


Maximizing Illicit Profits: Understanding How Corrupt Officials Chose How Much to Charge for Bribes

Benjamin Olken, Professor

Add to Calendar Jan/21 Wed 01:00PM-02:00PM E17-136

Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up

In this talk, we will examine how economists study corruption in the field, and how the tools of economics can help us understand how corrupt officials determine how much they can charge in bribes. We will study examples from Indonesia including village road-building, bribes paid by long-distance truck drivers, and illegal logging.

Sponsor(s): Economics
Contact: Linda Woodbury, E18-201D, 617 253-8885, LWOODBUR@MIT.EDU


The Beveridge Curve

Peter Diamond, Institute Professor Emeritus

Add to Calendar Jan/12 Mon 01:00PM-02:30PM E17-136

Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up

Debates about higher structural unemployment occur whenever unemployment has stayed high.   Consistent with the academic literature, a shift in the Beveridge curve, as in the current recovery, has been viewed as a structural change, suggesting a limited role for stimulus. But a shift has occurred in 8 of the 9 recoveries since 1954.

Sponsor(s): Economics
Contact: Linda Woodbury, E18-201D, 617 253-8885, LWOODBUR@MIT.EDU


The Globalization of Production

Pol Antras, Professor

Add to Calendar Jan/15 Thu 01:00PM-02:30PM E17-133

Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up

This session will discuss how world production processes have been sliced across borders. An emphasis will be placed on how economists have attempted to systematically  document this phenomenon and how they have attempted to understand it through theoretical models

Sponsor(s): Economics
Contact: Linda Woodbury, E18-201D, 617 253-8885, LWOODBUR@MIT.EDU


Why Do Women Fare So Badly in Developing Countries?

Seema Jayachandran, Associate Professor

Add to Calendar Jan/22 Thu 01:00PM-02:30PM E17-133

Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up

Gender gaps in education, legal rights, life satisfaction, etc. are smaller in high-income countries than low-income countries. This talk discusses how the process of economic development narrows gender gaps, as well as why gender equality might be good for economic growth.

Sponsor(s): Economics
Contact: Linda Woodbury, E18-201D, 617 253-8885, LWOODBUR@MIT.EDU