Thursday 29 March 2012

Graduation Celebration


UW Economics Society supports graduation.

JUNE 14th, 2012
12:00 PM - 3:00 PM
HH 334

Are you graduating? G-R-A-D-U-A-T-I-N-G!!!!  Somehow it sounds less exciting when spelled out so pretend I yelled.

For students graduating this or last term, our beloved department is hosting a fantastic event in June to reconnect with fellow students and some professors too!

There is going to be some light refreshments provided as well as free advice (haha). It's up to you which is more likely to draw you back to Waterloo.

Please RSVP to Taryn MacLean
temaclea@uwaterloo.ca

Sincerely,

UW Economics Society

Sunday 25 March 2012

Econ Soc Pool Night

watermaid.ca
We have had a great run, some execs are even done this term!  We are looking for some execs to take over so come out and socialize with us at Dooly's, let us know about your ideas for next term!  There's gonna be pool fun for all.  This is the last social of the term!

Facebook Event

Friday 23 March 2012

Prof Profile: Stéphanie Lluis

Contact info: 
Office: Hagey Hall 239 
Phone: 519-888-4567, ext. 32960 

The following is a paraphrased account of the interview with Professor Stéphanie Lluis.

What courses do you teach?
Currently 321 introduction to econometrics and 487 topics in labour economics

What do you enjoy most about teaching?
I like to keep learning things and for me having to prepare my classes by trying to update things - it's closer to being a student.  I would like to be a student for longer and it's one way.

What do you think students struggle the most with?
For 321 econometrics at least, it requires regular studying and from the very beginning and potentially being different from other courses especially because prerequisites might have been taken a while ago so I've noticed students struggle to catch up.  I try to give students exercises.  They have to realize the gaps in their knowledge and try to fill them quickly.

For the topics course 487, I've put in prereqs such as the basics of econometrics.  Students have to be ready to view things in a formal way, meaning that there is math involved instead of just graphs such as maximizing profits.  Anybody can take this course, I only require 301 and 321 that teach the technical tools required, it could be their first exposure to a labour experience.

What topics are the hardest to understand for students? why do you think that is?
Whenever you become more abstract. Students get the idea if its current events or in the news they can relate.  As we move away from current events which is very contextual to a more abstract concept to analyze a problem at a higher level such as mechanisms behind ideas or the assumptions, students have a harder time understanding why we do this and what it is.  Also, reasoning in terms of functions and in statistics its distributions - it is harder.  You have to step back and understand the bigger picture, there has to be some motivation for the whole thing and sometimes you have to wait.

What do you think most students don’t know but should?
Coming from France it was different, it was courses everyday all day long so when I came here, only 3 hours a week per class, it was like a holiday!  When I came to North America, it took me a while to realize that for one course it's 3 hours a week in class but 9 hours in your week to study on your own.  For example, 4 courses is 12 hours a week plus the 36 hours outside of class fills your week, clearly.  You have to do it on your own, I have the impression that students sometimes overlook that part.  What we do in class gives you the basics and explains the more tricky parts but there are so many other things you can get from the textbook or from the notes or exercises that we don’t have time to do in class.  You can't do everything in class.  If students need more they have to ask me for more.  Of course its a question of interest, as well.  In the topics course I would expect students to be more interested. Some students have 90s.  I am confident that students that are getting good grades are interested.

It comes back regularly that students don’t know how much math there’s going to be.  There's going to be a lot of math involved in 3rd and 4th year.  I would recommend taking courses in sequence, try to put courses together otherwise if there is a semester or two in between clearly we forget things.  If they are too far away from each other it might affect your grade in the later courses.  I know students pick harder courses so it won’t hurt their GPA, it's strategic and I understand but the counterpart to that is you may be taking courses too far apart.

What is a book that you recommend all aspiring labour economists read?
I would definitely say if you have extra time which you should (*chuckles*) blogs are interesting to follow like Marginal Revolution or Freakonomics; Mankiw has a good one.  Borjas talks about immigration issues that are interesting. For books, I actually was given for my birthday Le Capital by Marx which every economics student should eventually read.  But I reread it in a different way which might be more appealing to students, the manga.


What are some interesting research questions in your area of expertise that undergraduates can investigate as a senior essay research topic?
Many things have been done, a lot of it has been done in the US but not with Canadian Data.  Such as what the minimum wage's on effect on different labour market outcomes such as employment duration and employment rate but there are other interesting questions.  The minimum wage even though only effects a smaller population, it's interesting to students because its them but also has an effect on the rest of the economy.

How individuals use their time would be of interest to students (in terms of leisure labour choices).  Sometimes its old data, that's the problem.  Like for trends its the best is the Labour Force Survey (LFS), which is done every year.  I have had some students download it every year and do trends in labour such as discrimination with regards to immigrants, gender wage gap, choices of occupation, and why they make different choices. And we have access to that through the library.

Monday 19 March 2012

Prof Profile: Corey Van de Waal


Contact Info:
Office: Hagey Hall 213
Phone: 519-888-4567, ext. 32463
Email: chvandew@uwaterloo.ca

What courses do you teach?
I teach all of the micro courses so 101, 201 and 301.

What do you think is the most difficult for students and why?
Probably, 301 because of the mathematical component to it.

What do you think would be a good topic for an honours essay thesis?
Many of the topics I’ve seen have to do with labour economics when I supervise 472 papers. A lot of them have to do with income distribution, some have to do with educational attainment, a lot of minimum wage theory that kind of stuff. Any topic really, that interests you or gets you excited is appropriate. Usually something in line with your supervisors interests in terms of they are doing research in what you are interested in so they have some insight and unique advice that they could give you.

What book do you think all economics students should read?
It’s not even an economics book really, Moneyball is actually quite a good book. I find it interesting in that what it does is it finds a situation where there is an outlier and how you can exploit that to your benefit in certain markets. Another really good book and in particular this author is really good is Malcolm Gladwell. He’s written Outliers, What the Dog Saw and Tipping Point.

What do you think most students don’t know but they should?
Wow, where do I begin? I guess, understanding rational behavior, something so fundamental as rational behavior for the consumer. I think there is some confusion, even into third year, with the idea what a real consumer equilibrium represents. Yeah, I think that’s the most fundamental thing.

Have you had any memorable stories in your teaching career?
Oh God yeah. So many that it is very difficult to pick one out. If I were to pick one out, the first time I taught intro micro I told a story in class about when I was a grad student in the context of an inferior good I give an example that when I was a student you know you don’t have a lot of money so you eat things like Kraft Dinner or in my case dusty noodles, these noodles cups with a pack of dust you pour on it and boil some water, that sort of thing and at the end of that term I had numerous students come to me with packages of dusty noodles. That one was kind of funny but there have been may over the years. In the 6 years I’ve been teaching there’s probably 20 good, funny stories.

What do you enjoy most about teaching?
Just the reaction from the students. I tend to get a fairly positive reaction from the students. It’s interesting to see how they respond to my style of teaching; I’m a little bit laid back and I try to make as many jokes as possible. I try and keep things light and keep that atmosphere in the classroom. So the part I enjoy most is the interaction and feedback I get from students. 

Saturday 17 March 2012

Feedback Request

To all of you that came out to our events last week we hope you found them insightful and useful.  We are looking for feedback on this event around topic choice, planning and execution.  Also, what future topics would you like to see as a focus at E-Con? Who would you like to speak?

Send us an e-mail at uw.economics.society@gmail.com

See you next event!

Monday 5 March 2012

E-Con: The First Economics Conference @ UWaterloo

MARCH 12-15th, 2012


MON in PAS 1229
@500PM Geoff Malleck on Personal Branding, MBA vs MA and careers
@630PM Phil Curry on Grad Studies and Academia

WED in PAS 1229
@600PM Larry Smith on Career Strategy for Economics

THURS in PAS 2083
@600PM Jean-Paul Lam on Public and Private Jobs and Interviews
@730PM Pirapa Tharmalingam on the Realities of the Job Market

Official Facebook Event Page

The Economics Society is proud to present E-Con: The First Economics Conference.  You have been asking us to organize an event focused on career paths and professional development within the field of economics.  We are going to deliver on that request and are planning the event for March 12th to the 16th.

The speakers have been 100% confirmed.


See you there!

UW Economics Society

Friday 2 March 2012

Prof Profile: Dinghai Xu

Contact info:
Office: Hagey Hall 201
Phone: 519-888-4567 ext. 32047
E-mail:  dhxu@uwaterloo.ca

What follows is a paraphrased interview with Professor Xu

What courses do you teach?
ECON 421 Econometrics currently and ECON 405 Quantitative Finance, 422 Topics in Econometrics in the past.

What do you enjoy most about teaching?
Connecting with students.  Small class sizes allow for better student engagement.  It’s easier for students to ask questions in a smaller class.  Jokes also relax the atmosphere and create a more casual and relaxed learning environment.  It also helps with retaining student attention because in larger classes some students can become disinterested and get away with surfing the internet or playing games.

What topics are the hardest to understand for students? why do you think that is?
The foundations required in advanced econometric theory: matrix algebra, calculus (derivatives and integrals) and probability theory.  Students should have a concrete understanding of these topics before taking a course like 421 or 422.  The topics students struggle with most are Maximum Likelihood Estimation because of uncertainties with the foundations.

Students also have difficulty with grasping the theory without examples.  Students always ask for examples but the theory is general enough that it can easily fit many situations.  It can be applied to all areas such as health, labour, financial econometrics and more.  Understanding the theory and what’s inside the black box of regressions is very important for an undergraduate student interested in graduate studies in economics.

What is a book that you recommend all aspiring econometricians read?
For students seriously considering graduate studies and taking advanced econometrics courses there are a few introductory textbooks available in many editions at the library

Econometrics Analysis by W. H. Greene.
Time Series Analysis by J. D. Hamilton.

What are some interesting research questions in your area of expertise that undergraduates can investigate as a senior essay research topic?
Some topics are distributional considerations for time series data (such as stock returns, foreign exchange rates, indices...); Monte Carlo methods in time series analysis; comparisons across estimation methods for time series just to list a few.