Instructor: Keith T. Poole

Office: Room 304D Baldwin Hall
E-Mail: ktpoole@uga.edu
WebSite: k7moa Home Page

Office Hours: By Appointment

The following texts will be used in this course:

• The Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 27 No. 3 (Summer 2013)
  
• James K. Galbraith. 2016. Inequality:What Everyone Needs to Know
  
• Nolan McCarty, Keith T. Poole, and Howard Rosenthal. 2013. Political Bubbles
  

Requirements

Grades will be determined by three examinations -- two mid-semester exams and a final exam. The exams will be Multiple Choice. The midterms will be worth ¼ each and the final 1/2 of the course grade.

The Multiple Choice exams will be about 25-30 questions each for the Midterms and 40-50 questions for the final. They will be straightforward with no "tricks".

The first exam is scheduled for Friday, 16 February 2018 , 3:35 - 4:25PM.
The second exam is scheduled for Friday, 30 March 2018, 3:35 - 4:25PM.
The final is scheduled for Monday, 30 April 2018, 3:30 - 5:30PM.

Example Questions for the First Exam
Example Questions for the Second Exam

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Course Outline

1. Congressional Polarization
   
   Assignment:
   
   
   • "Measuring Ideology"
     
   • "The Decline and Rise of Party Polarization in Congress During the Twentieth Century." Extensions, Fall 2005.
     
   • "The Roots of the Polarization of Modern U. S. Politics." Revista de Ciencia Politica, December, 2008.
     
   • Growing Apart: The Mathematical Evidence for Congress' Growing Polarization, by Jordan Ellenberg
     (Note that the links to voteview.uh.edu should be k7moa.com. The pages are still on the website.)
     
     Brief Overview of the State of Income Inequality (PowerPoint)
     SOIRS Tax Tables Page
     Public Debt Statements
     CBO: Summary of the Budget and Economic Outlook: 2017 to 2027
     Measuring Ideology (PowerPoint)
     
   
   
   
2. The Basics of Income Inequality in the US since the end of World War II
   
   Assignment:
   
   
   • Inequality, Introduction and Chapters 1 and 2
     
   • JEP, "The Top 1 Percent in International and Historical Prespective"
     
   • JEP, "Defending the 1 Percent"
     
     Civil Rights and the Realignment of the South (PowerPoint)
     JEP Papers 1 and 2 (PowerPoint)
     Federal Reserve Bulletin on U.S. Family Finances (PowerPoint)
     Black-White Inequality (Powerpoint)
     Gender, Race, and Wage Inequality (PowerPoint)
     
     
     SOURCES:
     
     Minimum-Wage Workers Have Lost Nearly a Year’s Salary to Inflation. by Rachel West, 7 February 2019, Center for American Progress.
     Here’s How Much America’s Rising Income Inequality Is Costing Social Security. by Rachel West, 14 February 2019, Center for American Progress.
     Federal Reserve Bulletin: "Changes in U.S. Family Finances from 2010 to 2016: Evidence from the Survey of Consumer Finances."
     Systematic Inequality: How America's Structural Racism Helped Create the Black-White Wealth Gap." By Angela Hanks, Danyelle Solomon, and Christian E. Weller, 21 February 2018, Center for American Progress.
     Rutgers: John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development: "Unfulfilled Expectations: Recent College Graduates Struggle in a Troubled Economy."
     Institute for Women's Policy Research: "The Gender Wage Gap by Occupation 2016 and by Race and Ethnicity."
     "The American High School Graduation Rate: Trends and Levels." James J. Heckman and Paul A. LaFontaine, Discussion Paper 3216, December 2007, Institute for the Study of Labor, Bonn, Germany
     "Skill Gaps, Skill Shortages and Skill Mismatches: Evidence for the U.S.", Peter Cappelli, NBER WP20382, August 2014
     "Polanyi's Paradox and the Shape of Employment Growth." David H. Autor, MIT.
     "Trends in Educational Assortative Marriage From 1940 to 2003." Christine R. Schwartz and Robert D. Mare, California Center for Population Research, UCLA
     "The End of Men and Rise of Women in the High Skilled Labor Market." Guido Cortes, Nir Jaimovich, and Henry Sin, September 2016.
     "Consumer Bankruptcy Filings: Trends and Indicators." Charles J. Tabb, Illinois Law and Economics WP Series No. LE06-023, University of Illinois College of Law.
     "Deaths of Despair and Support for Trump in the 2016 Presidential Election." Shannon M. Monnat, Department of Agricultural Economics, Sociology, and Education, Pennsylvania State University, 2016.
     "Wealth Inequality Among Asian Americans Greater Than Among Whites." Christian E. Weller and Jeffrey Thompson. Center for American Progress.
     "Our Miserable 21st Century", Nicholas Eberstadt, Commentary Magazine, March 2017.
     "Men Without Work: America's Invisible Crisis." By Christopher Caldwell. 2016.
     
     
3. The Financial Crisis of 2007-08 and the Great Recession
   
   Assignment:
   
   
   • Political Bubbles, entire book
     
   • Inequality, Chapters 3, 4, 5, and 6
     
   • When I was Your Age: Millennials and the Generational Wage Gap, by Brendan Duke, Center for American Progress
     
     
     What we know so far (PowerPoint)
     
     A Major Advance in Quantum Computing
     Neural Net Computer now GO champion
     An Important Advance in Computer Chip Design
     The Rise of the Robots (PowerPoint)
     MP3 file of Robots lecture (MP3)
     Deep Blue Chess Computer
     In 10 years will this be SkyNet?
     Current (2017) Listing of fastest SuperComputers in the World
     Income Inequality and the Rise of High Technology (PowerPoint)
     The public attitudes on Science (PowerPoint)
     
     The Financial Crisis of 2007-08, Part 1 (PowerPoint)
     The Financial Crisis of 2007-08, Part 2 (PowerPoint)
     The Financial Crisis of 2007-08, Part 3 (PowerPoint)
     
   
   
   
   
4. Is Immigration to Blame?
   
   Assignment:
   
   
   • Inequality, Chapters 7 and 8
     
     
     Inequality and Immigration (PowerPoint)
     
     
5. Education, Job Skills, and Globalization
   
   Assignment:
   
   
   • JEP, "It's the Market: The Broad-Based Rise in the Return to Top Talent."
     
   • JEP, "The Pay of Corporate Executives and Financial Professionals as Evidence of Rents in Top 1 Percent Incomes."
     
   • JEP, "Income Inequality, Equality of Opportunity, and Intergenerational Mobility."
     
   • The Evolving Structure of the American Economy and the Employment Challenge, Michael Spence and Sandile Hlatshwayo, 2011, Council on Foreign Relations
     
     
     Income Inequality, Education, and Free Trade (PowerPoint)
     
     
6. Money, Organized Interests, and American Politics
   
   Assignment:
   
   
   • Inequality, Chapters 9, 10, and 11
     
   • JEP, "Why Hasn't Democracy Slowed Rising Inequality?"
     
     
     Money and The Ruling Elite (PowerPoint)
     
     
   
   
   

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Site Links

VOTEVIEW Blog
NOMINATE Data, Roll Call Data, and Software
Course Web Pages: University of Georgia (2010 - )
Course Web Pages: UC San Diego (2004 - 2010)
University of San Diego Law School (2005)
Course Web Pages: University of Houston (2000 - 2005)
Course Web Pages: Carnegie-Mellon University (1997 - 2000)
Analyzing Spatial Models of Choice and Judgment with R
Spatial Models of Parliamentary Voting
Recent Working Papers
Analyses of Recent Politics
About This Website
K7MOA Log Books: 1960 - 2017
Bio of Keith T. Poole
Related Links

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