Lecture 1: Economic Science

MIT 14.04 Intermediate Microeconomic Theory, Fall 2020
Instructor: Prof. Robert Townsend

Professor Townsend presents economies that are striking in their organization, pinpoints key elements, draws a parallel between village economies and crypto currencies, and defines the what, how, and why of the science of economics. A course outline is provided.

License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA

[mitocw]

MIT 14.04 Intermediate Microeconomic Theory, Fall 2020
Instructor: Prof. Robert Townsend

[JalalKZulfiqar]

This is beyond amazing, I wish more of the classes at MIT were recorded and posted online. I would love to see something recorded on econometrics too

[hermelinosouza]

0:17: Course about theory and data in economics
1:11: Background and prerequisites
1:41: Readings and textbooks
2:40: Focus on theory and applications
3:08: Engagement and distractions
3:41: Topics to be studied
4:37: Econometrics and validation of theory
6:41: Business cycles and policy
9:21: Econometrics and model distinctions
10:01: Running experiments and natural experiments
14:15: Artificial economies and models
15:44: Simplicity and computation in models
16:36: Introduction to different economies
16:57: Economies discussed: Medieval village economy
17:18: Economies discussed: Thai village economy
18:25: Economies discussed: Oaxaca in Mexico
19:14: Economies discussed: Traders in geographically separated markets
19:40: Economies discussed: Islands in the Pacific
21:00: Analogies between economies and financial markets
23:27: Introduction to distributed ledgers
23:43: Potential of blockchain technology
25:49: Controversies surrounding Bitcoin and blockchain
28:49: Overview of the course topics
29:17: Building blocks for constructing economies
30:10: Decision-making under uncertainty
30:55: Financial accounts and management
31:12: Bitcoin and distributed ledgers
31:23: Obstacles to Trade
31:45: Competitive Equilibrium
32:16: Pareto Optimality
32:31: Micro and Macro
32:57: Failure of Welfare Theorems
33:21: Bitcoin and Monetary Policy
34:34: Methods of Analysis
34:55: Consumer Behavior
36:03: Production
37:31: Linear Programs
38:11: Pareto Optimality and Risk
40:25: Household Financial Accounts
40:50: Bitcoin and Alternative Economies
41:58: Contracts and Mechanism Design
43:06: Walrasian Equilibrium and Trade
43:30: Trade and Liberalization
44:57: COVID-19 and US Economy
45:48: Optimality of competitive equilibria
45:52: Existence of Nash equilibria
46:08: Analysis of trade failures in US financial markets
46:14: Aggregation and identification
46:25: Failures of the First Welfare theorem
46:31: Handling externalities
46:44: Emergence of money (fiat money and Bitcoin)
47:09: Value of Bitcoin and US dollar
47:24: Volatility and danger of Bitcoin
47:33: Systematic course

[facitenonvictimarum]

Once I took a course called, "A brief course in semi-micro qualitative analysis, " and the name alone made me feel so damn smart that I made sure everyone could see my textbook.

[ahmedelmawrdy]

Thnaks a
you gave me another chance to study what i love but couldn't study before because of some financial issues.
you made me, belive more that the science is free for all to know and study!

[loonienews]

a WHOLE NEW SCHOOL FOR ECONIMIC WEATHER

[gerardoherrera]

Great! Time to read the MGW book (again). Thank you since 2014.

[얼음소년]

Thank you, It's so good this Lecture

[ontatobayesbet]

bom dia, gostaria de uma tradução para portugues na aula que é introdutoria. Obrigado!

[newtoncain]

did you know Understanding The Tyrant
Piled before the tyrant is a feast of kingly proportions, like a Thanksgiving Day feast flowing across his dinner table. You sit quietly without access to the table, but in your hands you do hold a little crust of bread. This is all you have and you cradle it carefully because it must be made to last. And even though the tyrant’s belly is full and he has more than he could possibly ever eat in a lifetime, all he can think about is YOUR little crust.
All he wonders about day and night is why you have that crust when it should be his. He grinds his teeth frothing in desperation for your meager meal. Then one day he decides he will not stop until your bread crust is in his hands while you starve. This is now his mission in life – To take your crust and crumbs and leave you with nothing. Any other outcome would be unimaginable.
He not only wants to steal your crust, but he wants to see your despair when he does it. He wants you to know he has your last meal, and he wants to see the pain in your face when he takes it away. Then, he wants you act like you love him for it.

[ZennExile]

"I believe that economic theory has arrived at a point in its development where the appeal to quantitative empirical data has become more necessary than ever. At the same time its analyses have reached a degree of complexity that require the application of a more refined scientific method than that employed by the classical economists."

So Frisch wasn't suggesting here that economics is faith based and needed a scientific overhaul to remain relevant and predicatively effective? He was instead suggesting that Pure Economics is already scientifically refined to the point of producing empirical quantitative data?

Fascinating...

[حمزةمصطفى-ول]

This a very wonderful I depend about MIT university course’s specialty in economy but I am Blind From Yemen you know about little coasts so I depend about your learning so I wish to give a lot of courses in the economy specialty about visibility study and central banking and econometrics and so forth two related clothes can’t to be learning a lot from you until to improve from myself be easier

[alangaudry]

Buy a S&P index fund, don't try to time the market. Save a little spend a little but make sure you live!