Requirements
Every student is required to make a presentation to the class of an existing paper from the syllabus (or elsewhere). Each presentation will be allotted 40 minutes. Students should feel free to use the blackboard and/or transparencies/powerpoint.
As a part of the presentation, students are required to prepare a report (roughly 3 pages) on the paper that they are discussing. The report should summarize and critically review the paper. The critical review is the most important part of the report and should account for roughly 2/3 of the total length. Students should concentrate on evaluating the paper with the criteria that we have discussed in class. Where appropriate, discuss the appropriateness/insightfulness of the model and/or the credibility of the empirical approach. If the paper does not have a model, students may want to discuss what a good model would look like. If the paper is theoretical, students should discuss what a meaningful test of the model would look like.
Student Presentation Topics
Jorgenson, Dale W., and Peter J. Wilcoxen. "Environmental Regulation and U.S. Economic Growth." The RAND Journal of Economics 21, no. 2, (1990): 314-340.
Galiani, Sebastian, Paul Gertler, and Ernesto Schargrodsky. "Water for Life: The Impact of the Privatization of Water Services on Child Mortality." Jounal of Political Economy 113, no. 1 (2005): 83-119.
Gray, Wayne, and John Mendelhoff. "The Declining Effects of OSHA Inspections on Manufacturing Industries: 1979 to 1998." NBER Working Paper 9119 (2002).
Kowalski, Amanda. "Birth and Taxes: Using Historical State Tax Variation to Instrument the Effect of Maternal Smoking on Birth Weight." Manuscript (2005).
Lynne, Gary D., Patricia Conroy, and Frederick J. Prochaska. "Economic Valuation of Marsh Areas for Marine Production Processes." Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 8, (1981): 175-186.
Margolis, Michael, Daniel E. Osgood, and John A. List. "Measuring the Preemption of Regulatory Takings in the US Endangered Species Act: Evidence From a Natural Experiment." Manuscript (2005).
Zhang, Fan. "Does Electricity Deregulation Work? Evidence from the US Nuclear Energy Industry." Manuscript (2005).
Gale, William G. "Public Policies and Private Pension Contributions." Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking 26, no. 3, (Aug. 1994): 710-732. Part 2: Federal Credit Allocation: Theory Evidence and History.
Neidell, Matthew. "Public Information and Avoidance Behavior: Do People Respond to Smog Alerts?" CISES Working Paper, no. 24 (2005).
———. "Incorporating Behavior into Biological Models: Understanding the Health Effects of Ozone." CISES Working Paper, no. 25 (2005).
Jayachandran, Seema. "Air Quality and Infant Mortality During Indonesia's Massive Wildfires in 1997." Manuscript (2005).
Brasselle, Anne-Sophie, Frederic Gaspart, and Jean-Philippe Platteau. "Land Tenure Security and Investment Incentives: Puzzling Evidence from Burkina Faso." Journal of Development Economics 67 (2002): 373-418.
Asadoorian, Malcolm O. "The Toxics Release Inventory: Public Awareness or Common Ignorance?" Interdisciplinary Environmental Review 3, no. 1 (2001): 113-131.
Rajan, Raghuram G., and Luigi Zingales. "Financial Dependence and Growth." American Economic Review 88, no. 3, (1998): 559-586.