Privatizing Education

Steve Yamarik helps to make the case for privatizing education. Schooling offers no positive externalities .

Estimating Returns to Schooling from State-Level Data: A Macro-Mincerian Approach

In this paper, we use information from U.S. states to determine the social return to schooling. We estimate a macro-Mincerian model where aggregate earnings (or income) depend upon physical capital, labor, average years of schooling and average labor force experience. We find that the social return to U.S. schooling is 9 to 16 percent, which matches estimates of the private return found in the labor literature. Our results therefore provide evidence that U.S. schooling is indeed productive, but generates no positive externalities.

Economics Student Discussion

The first meeting of the Economics student discussion group was a hit! We are meeting again on Wednesday, October 29th at 4pm in 307 CWH. Please join us if you can.

Visualization

Lisa points to an excellent visualization from the New York Times. However, it could have been improved. Eager Eyes has some suggestions.

Economics Student Discussion

The current economic situation in the US has prompted many discussions of macroeconomic policy, monetary policy, and the workings of the US economy. Multiple students have expressed interest in getting together to discuss current economic events. This discussion would be student led.

I propose an initial meeting time of 4:30pm on Wednesday, October 22 in room 257 in the Cartwright Center. If you are interested, join the Facebook group ‘UW-L Economics Students’ or email me.

If you have a specific question or an article to discuss, bring it with you.

Kathryn Birkeland
birkelan.kath@uwlax.edu

Can A President Tame the Business Cycle?

Check out this great New York Times interactive graphic. Notice the biggest change in the past 16 years (i.e. bipartisan) is the change in the share of income of the bottom 99%.

2008-2009 Seminars

The Economics Department will once again host a seminar series during the 2008-09 academic year. The series is made possible by the generous bequest made to the department by David M. Cole, a professor of economics at UWL from 1966-77. Seminars are scheduled for Friday afternoons and generally last for one hour. The series is open to anyone, but should be especially attractive to economics majors and minors. The series highlights the current research topics of scholars from a variety of backgrounds. Past speakers have included Nobel laureates Douglass North and Robert Fogel and Federal Reserve Board Governor Laurence Meyer. While not all speakers are as distinguished, their research is interesting and the presentations are always worth attending. Beginning this year the final presentation each semester will be made by a member of the UWL Economics Department in an effort to highlight the research that our faculty is undertaking. The speaker series has been set for the year, though dates are subject to change. Final details concerning the time and room for each seminar are available on the department web page the week prior to the seminar. This year’s scheduled speakers include:

October 10-Kristen Monaco, Cal State Long Beach, Wages and working conditions of truck drivers at the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles

November 7-Mike Wenz, Winona State, Is there status quo bias? Evidence from two point conversions in football

November 21- James Murray, Viterbo, Initial Expectations in New Keynesian Models with Learning

December 5- Glenn Knowles and Keith Sherony, UWL, A Tale of Two Teams: A Comparison of the Cubs & Sox in Chicago

March 6- Cara McDaniel, Kenyon College, A Study of Hours Worked in the OECD Countries

March 27- Russell Cooper, University of Texas, Macroeconomics

April 17- Scott Cunningham, Baylor, The Internet and Prostitution

May 1- Taggert J. Brooks, UWL, In Da Club: An Econometric Analysis of Strip Club Patrons

Problem Definition

I stumbled upon this quote from Bertrand Russell:

The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating the problem in a way that will allow a solution.

Bertrand Russell
British author, mathematician, & philosopher (1872 - 1970)

It's why we spend so much time on Problem Definition in BUS 230.