Course timing and readings
We are going to start the course by exploring perceptions and doing triage on environmental problems, discussing risk and diving a tiny bit into the history of the environmental movement.
- Please bring $5 to our first class (sometimes we don’t pay/collect until class two, but be prepared)
- If you prefer, we can use Venmo (@Riz20).
- Please make your way through the readings in Section One.
- If you read anything for the first class, please read Laurence Tribe’s instrumental piece on Ways to Not Think About Plastic Trees (it’s also part of the first homework).
Class Format: In person. Note that I have asked the college to record the lectures with the in-class technology (not on Zoom) but this will not be available for general use.
Syllabus: Please read it through, carefully. Make note of all important dates on your calendars now; start organizing your projects now.
Assignments and due dates
There will be an assignment due every Sunday night. Each week’s work will include at least one research project, a few review/preview economics questions based on the class lectures, and an opportunity to respond to one or more academic and non-academic pieces. The project for the first week is a little shorter than you can expect for the rest of the semester. We strongly recommend starting early on each of the assignments.
- Your first assignment has been posted and is due uploaded to Blackboard before 6:59pm on Sunday, August 31st.
- Late assignments, regardless of the reason, will not be accepted. Getting it submitted should be considered as much a part of the work as the work itself. If you think it may be late, or you think you need an extension, do not ask us, simply use one of your exemptions.
- PDF formats preferred, but our standard is, “Can we open the submission immediately without having to dig around, email you, etc.?”
- 15 weeks in the semester.
- We offer assignments in 13 of these weeks (no work due over holiday breaks!).
- You must do exactly 10 weeks of work.
- I.E. You need to use exactly 3 exemptions.
Course projects
Group Project Cheat Sheet
We have THREE group experiences in lieu of quizzes and exams.
- 1. Get Outside Project:
- a. Due November 4th.
- b. Group size between 4 and 8.
- 2. EETT (this is part one of a two-part engagement experience)
- a. Reflection 1: due as part of Week 3 RRR (Sept 14th)
- b. Reflection 2: due as part of Week 4 RRR (Sept 21st)
- c. Individual EETT Submission: due Sept 25th
- d. Group Precis: due Oct 5th
- e. Final Project: due Oct 17th
- f. Group size between 4 and 8
- 3. Interview Project (this is part two of a two-part engagement experience)
- a. Project due December 11th
- b. Group size between 4 and 8
Form Your Groups, Start Your Projects: All of the details on the what/how/who of the group projects can be found under, “Projects” on Blackboard.
In addition, to aid you in finding group members (I encourage you to mill around before or after lecture, but I know some of you don’t love that idea) there is a tentative class list posted in the “Syllabus ...” folder on Blackboard. Excellent projects are those that are pondered and discussed and debated all semester long. It will be evident if you do or do not do this. Note that Professor Rizzo grades all non-weekly work for the course.
Our TAs will assist you in finding a group if and only if you have tried unsuccessfully for the first two weeks of class.
Other class administration and availability
TA Office Hours and Info: Look for an announcement from our Head TA Cailtin Lipton for an update.
- The TAs are going to offer office hours and weekly discussion sessions which will enable you to explore class topics more deeply, and to dive into portions of the weekly class work (and possibly receive credit for doing so).
My Availability: Call or text me if you would like to chat over the weekend, I will not be on my computer. I can be reached at 585-478-2677.
For the most up to date info on my office hours availability, and campus whereabouts and other ways (possibly) to meet and get in touch with me, check this announcements page each week.
To access our updated office hours schedule (and for additional econ information including internships, grad school, special events, etc.) please subscribe to our Office Hours Blackboard page at tiny.cc/RizzoHours. I update my calendar weekly on that page, and include other sometimes useful information on it for you.
- Will be having outdoor Lunch Bunch hangouts on Mon and Weds 1130am to 1245pm. Come on by.
Upcoming Special Events
Department of Economics Engerman Lecture
Who: Robert Margo of Boston University
A specialist in the history of the American economy with particular emphasis on the economic history of African-Americans, Margo is the author or co-author of 5 books and over 150 articles, book chapters and book reviews. He has served on the editorial boards of many journals, including the Journal of Economic History, the American Economic Review, and the Quarterly Journal of Economics; and he has served as editor or co-editor of the Southern Economic Journal and of Explorations in Economic History. He was elected a Fellow of the Cliometric Society in 2012.
Additionally, Margo is an accomplished performer on classical guitar, mandolin, renaissance and baroque lutes. In the Boston area, he performs regularly with the Providence (Rhode Island) Mandolin Orchestra and the New American Mandolin Ensemble.
When: Wednesday, October 15th
Where: TBD
What: TBD
The Politics and Markets Project, Hosted by Professor David Primo
Title: Topic TBD (this will be a moderated panel discussion, likely on immigration)
Date: Wednesday, November 5th
Time: 7:30pm to 8:30pm
Location: Wegmans Hall, 1400.
The Department of Economics will be hosting several additional events this fall, TBA, coming soon!
Expected Guests/Topics: Lorenzo Caliendo (late September); Paul Bloom on Empathy/Compassion; David Livingstone-Smith (philosopher); Victor Haghani (money manager)
Some Things That Captured Our Attention
Dirt Batteries to Make Solar PV as Cheap (and reliable) as Natural Gas
Wakon Yosai: Or why Europe is all hot and bothered … “So the death rate from heat in Europe is almost twice the death rate from guns in America. If you think guns are an emergency in the U.S., you should think that heat in Europe is an even bigger emergency. Most of this death is preventable. The technology that prevents it is air conditioning”
Who Loves the Carbon Tax? Not the younger, poorer and less educated human beings that bear the disproportionate burden of it
Who Loves Nuclear? Not the ladies. “Nuclear power, which combines insignificant greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution with the reliability of fossil fuels, is another technology the progress movement strongly backs as a supplement to solar. There is a 30—point sex gap in support for increasing nuclear power generation in the US, and being male is one of the strongest predictors of support for nuclear in Denmark.”
Do Export Bans Protect Antiquities?
Damn … that’s a wee bit bigger than the Hoover Dam (actually, it is SIXTY times larger)
Temperature~economic growth: David Barker analyzes the Economic Inquiry article by Michael Kiley, who declined to respond to Barker’s critique of the Fed working paper version. Barker addresses what’s new and what he thinks is wrong. (Kiley is hereby invited to reply in a future issue of this journal.) “Kiley’s results remain spurious, resulting from a combination of outlier observations, heteroskedasticity, and correlations of time with both GDP growth and temperature. Autocorrelation of growth and temperature exacerbate the spuriousness of his findings.”
Anger Drives Engagement … Sigh: “The results show that negative emotions increase support for protectionism, restrictive immigration policies, redistribution, and climate policies but do not reinforce populist attitudes. In contrast, positive emotions have little effect on policy preferences but reduce populist inclinations. Finally, distinguishing between fear and anger, we find that anger exerts a much stronger influence on citizens’ policy views, in line with its growing presence in the political rhetoric.”
Green Gas: Fracking reduced emissions per capita by 7.5% and accelerated move to renewables
Ban Drinking: Paper straws have more forever chemicals than plastic straws
Chart of the Week
Well, there are more “capitas” … but US per capita CO2 emissions fall back down to World War I Levels (trend holds even controlling for insourced consumption)
Photo of the Week
Book toilets
Film, music, cultural item of the Week
The element was dubbed “Liquid Sunshine”
They Said It
Old pirates, yes, they rob I
Sold I to the merchant ships
Minutes after they took I
From the bottomless pit
But my hand was made strong
By the hand of the Almighty
We forward in this generation
Triumphantly
Won't you help to sing
These songs of freedom?
'Cause all I ever have
Redemption songs
Redemption songs
Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery
None but ourselves can free our minds
Have no fear for atomic energy
'Cause none of them can stop the time
How long shall they kill our prophets
While we stand aside and look?
Ooh, some say it's just a part of it
We've got to fulfill the book
Won't you help to sing
These songs of freedom?
'Cause all I ever have
Redemption songs
Redemption songs
Redemption songs
[Acoustic Break]
[Verse 3]
Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery
None but ourselves can free our minds
Whoa! Have no fear for atomic energy
'Cause none of them-ah can-ah stop-ah the time
How long shall they kill our prophets
While we stand aside and look?
Yes, some say it's just a part of it
We've got to fulfill the book
[Chorus]
Won't you help to sing
These songs of freedom?
'Cause all I ever have
Redemption songs
[Outro]
All I ever have
Redemption songs
These songs of freedom
Songs of freedom
― Bob Marley and the Wailers, Redemption Song