Extra Credit:
You can get extra credit points of up to 15% of your entire course grade.
Thinking of this 15% as 15 points, you can get the following credit:
| News Articles | Submit - either on paper or electronically - (1) a news article from the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, or some other newspaper, magazine, or news website; and (2) a written explanation (with graphs if they help the explanation) connecting the article to the material that we have covered in class, or material in the text book that we have not covered. | |
| Up to 1/2 point each. You can submit a maximum of 6 news articles. The number of points you get will be based mainly on what you write about the article. | ||
| Papers |
You may write papers (3-5 pages) for a MAXIMUM of 6 points each. You may submit up to 2 papers. The papers MUST be on one of the TOPICS LISTED BELOW-- see below. Note: More possible paper topics will be added within the next few weeks. |
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| Any paper you submit is due on or before the end of our last class (December 11, 2002) -- NO exceptions. You may submit 1 or 2 papers. If you submit 2 papers, the first one is due no later than the end of class on Monday, November 25 (and the second one is due by Dec. 11). | ||
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Notes on papers: Papers should contain solid arguments, backed with economic analysis. They may contain your opinions as well. The grade on your paper will not depend on whether I agree with you. The grade will be based on my evaluation of the strength of your argument -- for whatever position you take -- and for your presentation of that position. Strong arguments use logic and/or evidence. You can use graphs (or even math) if they help explain the argument better. |
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| You may write on: | Paper topics: (more to be added) | |
| Economics of Intellectual Property -- e.g. issues associated with Napster and file-sharing on the Internet; copyright and patent issues applied to ANY issues (e.g. patents on genetically-engineered life forms, etc.); pirating of software; open-source software (e.g. why create it if you can't get paid?); copying of videos and DVDs; etc. | ||
| Economics of the Internet -- almost anything connected with the Internet, e-commerce, etc. goes here -- as long as there is some economic content | ||
| Economics of Network Externalities -- As you will learn in class, a network externality occurs when the benefit of a product to any one person depends on the number of other people who have the same product (or a compatible product, based on the same standards). Examples include the telephone, the Internet, etc. | ||
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You may write papers on topics from certain Inquiries for Further Thought in the textbook: Pages 151-2 (Ch. 6) -- Inquiries 34-36 Pages 202-4 (Ch. 8) -- Inquiries 29-32 Pages 347-8 (Ch. 14) -- Inquiries 29-31, 35, 36 Page 363 (Ch. 15) -- Inquiry 20 Pages 392 (Ch. 17) -- Inquiries 26-27 Pages 440-2 (Ch. 19) -- Inquiries 19-46 Page 466 (Ch. 20) -- Inquiry 28 Pages 496-7 (Ch. 21) -- Inquiries 36, 37, 40, 41; also, you can do a paper on problem 29 on page 495. Pages 542-3 (Ch. 23) -- Inquiries 18-26 (more to be added) |
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