Notes: Econ 58

Lecture 2: Technological Change, Population, and Growth

Optional Reading

⚾ North, D (1990). Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic. Chapter 4: A transaction cost theory of exchange.

Lecture 3: Scarcity, Work, and Choice

Optional Reading

⚾ Tim Hartford. 4th Oct 2019. The triple risk of raising the US and UK minimum wage.

Lecture 4:

Optional Reading

⚾ Basu, K (1983). On why we do not try to walk off without paying after a tax-ride. Economic and Political Weekly.

⚾ The Collapse of the Grand Banks Cod Fishery

⚾ John Forbes Nash Jr.

Lecture 5

⚾ Oliver Hart: Incomplete contracts and the theory of the firm

Lecture 7

Change often comes in form of inventing new things. The problems firms and nations often face is to value the new goods. Valuing new goods require pinning down prices of goods. As one can imagine, pinning down the price of goods that have not yet been invented is not easy. The two article below look back in history and find how using prices to value good during periods of tectonic changes can be problematic.

• Nordhaus, W. D. (2007). Two centuries of productivity growth in computing. The Journal of Economic History, 67(01):128–159.

• Nordhaus, William D. Do real-output and real-wage measures capture reality? The history of lighting suggests not. The economics of new goods. University of Chicago Press, 1996. 27-70.

Lecture 8

Revolutions and the price of bread: 1848 and now

Lecture 20

⚾ Weitzman’s book reviewed in FT.

• Gernot, and Martin L. Weitzman. Climate shock: the economic consequences of a hotter planet. Princeton University Press, 2015.

Notes: Econ 58

Lecture 2: Technological Change, Population, and Growth

Optional Reading

⚾ North, D (1990). Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic. Chapter 4: A transaction cost theory of exchange.

Lecture 3: Scarcity, Work, and Choice

Optional Reading

⚾ Tim Hartford. 4th Oct 2019. The triple risk of raising the US and UK minimum wage.

Lecture 4:

Optional Reading

⚾ Basu, K (1983). On why we do not try to walk off without paying after a tax-ride. Economic and Political Weekly.

⚾ The Collapse of the Grand Banks Cod Fishery

⚾ John Forbes Nash Jr.

Lecture 5

⚾ Oliver Hart: Incomplete contracts and the theory of the firm

Lecture 7

Change often comes in form of inventing new things. The problems firms and nations often face is to value the new goods. Valuing new goods require pinning down prices of goods. As one can imagine, pinning down the price of goods that have not yet been invented is not easy. The two article below look back in history and find how using prices to value good during periods of tectonic changes can be problematic.

• Nordhaus, W. D. (2007). Two centuries of productivity growth in computing. The Journal of Economic History, 67(01):128–159.

• Nordhaus, William D. Do real-output and real-wage measures capture reality? The history of lighting suggests not. The economics of new goods. University of Chicago Press, 1996. 27-70.

Lecture 8

Revolutions and the price of bread: 1848 and now

Lecture 20

⚾ Weitzman’s book reviewed in FT.

• Gernot, and Martin L. Weitzman. Climate shock: the economic consequences of a hotter planet. Princeton University Press, 2015.