Nearly two months have passed since my last post here. Sorry. I've been pretty busy with school.
I'm going five days a week during the morning, but I'm home for lunch every day, so that's pretty nice. It's a very different experience than going two days a week for the entire day. I like this better in a lot of ways. I don't care much for the commute though. Except for most Fridays, the Max is already nearly full by the time it gets to my stop at the eastern edge of the Free Rail Zone (all public transportation is free - includes the entire core downtown area). By the time we get to the final stop at PSU it's usually a tight fit. A LOT of people can fit in a MAX car. But the opposite is true when leaving. PSU is now the first stop and you can always get a good seat.
There is a LOT of work and reading associated with my behavioral econ class. This class is probably one of the most challenging classes I've taken so far. It's kind of a fringe topic in economics, but has gotten a lot more interest in the last 10 years or so. The class is basically a psychology class that looks at economic behavior. I'm currently on a team with two other students and we are in the beginning stages of constructing an empirical experiment and will eventually produce a "scholarly" paper on the process. This class is pushing past my existing boundaries in several ways. I'm enjoying that part a lot. And there was no expensive textbook to buy for this class. Yay!
My energy econ class is pretty much what I expected, but has a bit more diverse student body than the last class I took with my favorite professor. It's not just economics majors which can result in some interesting interactions. 80-some odd year old Professor Katz is old-school, fair, points out his own biases (which are usually pretty tempered with truth), and doesn't put up for very long with stupidity and close-mindedness from his students. He may tell you to shut up, but he will try to make sure it's not personal and will only do so when needed. He's unbelievably smart and is nearly encyclopaedic when it comes to canonical energy and regulatory economics. The reading is relatively easy and the textbook wasn't very expensive. This class is like the last I took with Katz, in that there are only two tests that determine our entire grade. Our first one is in a couple of weeks (Feb 21) and the final is on Mar 20. Two shots is all you get and the exams will be based entirely on lectures.
Economics of Green Power is even more diverse in the student body makeup. It hasn't been very hard at all so far. Our first midterm is Monday morning and then we have a take-home portion that is due Friday. There have been several graded assignments so far. I could have done better. Some of the questions were worded in vague and somewhat confusing ways. I have a few other complaints about the instructor, but I won't dwell on them. For the most part he is OK and I understand why he is the way he is. Anyway, I'm learning a lot about the different ways to economically deal with pollution and there economic effects, the differences in and importance of equity and efficiency, mitigation treaty evolution, etc. Later we will be covering subjects like green jobs, sustainability, policy, etc. and their economic effects. This isn't an exciting class, but it is giving me a valuable deeper understanding of these important issues.
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