``G492: Specialized Topics in Economic Consulting,'' Spring 2007 (26 March 2007)

          There is no text or readings packet-- all of the readings will be available on the Web or from the instructor. I have not ordered it at the bookstore, but I do recommend William Strunk and E.B. White, Elements of Style, 4th edition (1999) (any edition is fine). Strunk's earlier book is up on the Web.

          The grade will be calculated from the grade on your report (80%) and your oral presentation (20%). In addition, participation (including attendance) can add or subtract 5 or 10% as one of five levels-- Plus, Double Plus, Neutral, Minus or Double Minus. Attendance is required. You may, however, choose to skip up to five of the oral presentation sessions without penalty.

My policy on using work from other classes: Ask me first if you want to combine this project with work from other classes.

          The handout on what should be in your projects is here, together with writing instructions and lengthier notes on writing. I also have posted tips and procedures for your oral presentations.

          You may wish to look at lists of topics from Spring 2004 and Spring 2005. Previous papers include those of Lauren Baechle, Mark Leeman, Steve List, Jeremy Prala, and James Smith.

Spring Break is the week of March 12th and 14th.

 

G492 SCHEDULE

8 January, Monday. Rules for Writing
          I've posted sentences we talked about in class and other sentences, without improvements and with them.
"Capitalization Rules for Titles"
          "Writing Tips", www.writersblock.ca, is a good site on the fine points of writing.

10 January, Wednesday. Good Business Writing
          Warren Buffett, "The Chairman's Letter," pp. 3-23 of "The 2002 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Report," http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/2002ar/2002ar.pdf and my powerpoints.
The introduction to the 1997 Cardozo Law Review issue on Berkshire Hathaway.
          "The Annual Frenzy over Buffett; Berkshire Hathaway's Report Will Hit Investors' Screens; for Some, It's the Ideal Weekend," Monica Langley, Wall Street Journal, March 5, 2004. p. C1.
          Berkshire Hathaway Annual Reports from other years
          Benjamin Franklin on Writing

15, 17 January. GROUP MEETING 1 THIS WEEK.

22 January, Monday. Data Sources
          Data source link page

24 January, Wednesday. Consulting Reports
          Peter Koudal, "Profiting from Continuous Differentiation in the Global Chemicals Industry," Deloitte and Touche (2003), http://www.deloitte.com/dtt/cda/doc/content/DTT_DR_ProfitGlobalChem.pdf and powerpoints to go with it

          Marin Gjaja, Sims Hulings and Peter Stanger, "Profit Parabolas: Bringing Science to the Art of Pricing," BCG Publications (2003), http://www.bcg.com/publications/publication_view.jsp?pubID=1011&language=English and overheads of the article

29, 31 January. GROUP MEETING 2 THIS WEEK.

5 February, Monday. Graphs and Tables
          "Principles of Graphs and Tables" and other powerpoint slides.
          "Graphic of the Day: Enron Follies," New York Times, February 6, 2002" http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00006W&topic_id=1.
          A text file with instructions on Excel chart reformatting, and a spreadsheet example.

7 February, Wednesday. Powerpoint
          Tips and Procedures for oral presentations (and point by point in powerpoint) and more tips in a different format.
          Some powerpoint slides I might use. I will use overheads and powerpoints. Here is the the original longer PDF NERA version of consulting firm slides on double marginalization.
          Edward Tufte, "PowerPoint Is Evil," Wired, Issue 11.09 (September 2003), http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/ppt2.html, and Julia Keller, "Is PowerPoint the Devil?", http://faculty.winthrop.edu/kosterj/WRIT465/management/juliakeller1.htm, and Steven Kaminski, "PowerPoint Presentations: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly," http://www.shkaminski.com/Classes/Handouts/powerpoint.htm
          Peter Norvig, "The Gettysburg Powerpoint Presentation," http://www.norvig.com/Gettysburg/index.htm . Here is the original Gettysburg Address.
          "PowerPoint Usability: Q&A with Don Norman" by Cliff Atkinson--- a defense of Powerpoint.
          A 2001 New Yorker article on powerpoint.
          Representative examples of powerpoint slides(not *good* examples): McKinsey New York police and ECA Asian power grid and Allen Consulting on government investments.

12, 14 February. GROUP MEETING 3 THIS WEEK.

19 February, Monday. Presenting Statistics to Clients
          Franklin Fisher, "Statisticians, Econometricians, and Adversary Proceedings " and some powerpoints on Fisher's article and sample regression tables
          A link to my materials on simple statistics and regression analysis, including the Rice University java applets. In particular, see the Rice "Confidence Intervals" and "Regression by Eye" applets.
          Data on abortion by state in Excel spreadsheets, with regressions.
          Tips for Regression Presentation .

21 February Wednesday. Oral Presentations: Christy Waninski, Jessica Wild, Robert Walsh, Renato Schuetz

26 February, Monday. Oral Presentations: Bly Roll, Brian Spiro, Shannon Suba, Daniel Vollen

28 February, Wednesday. Oral Presentations:Ashley Pafford, Jeremy Patick, Jason Powers, Adeel Quraishi

5 March, Monday. Oral Presentations:Robert McCarty, Chad Miller, Todd Miltenberger, Michael Morrow

7 March Wednesday. Oral Presentations: Nat Kitichai, Brennan Knotts, Farah Kraus,Scott Lipsky

(12, 14 March) SPRING BREAK

19 March, Monday. Oral Presentations:Clement Huang, Samuel Jung, Cady Kaas, Jacqueline Kabigting

21 March, Wednesday. Oral Presentations: Ashutosh Kadakia, Clark Kaericher, Shane Kennedy, Trevor Blum

26, 28 March. GROUP MEETING 4 THIS WEEK.

2 April, Monday. Writing Analysis.
No reading. We will go over examples of student writing in class.

4 April, Wednesday. Oral Presentations: Raj Gunasekaran, Daniel Hammes, Daniel Hill, Kara Howard

9 April, Monday. Oral Presentations: Allison Dembek, Matt Etzler, Angela Fox, Robert Gradeless

11 April, Wednesday. Oral Presentations: Benjamin Brodsky, Jared Sloane, Christine Cash, Paul Schuhmaker

16 April, Monday. Oral Presentations: Luis Abibe, Amanda Arhontas, Michael Bayles, Harry Bramson

18 April, Wednesday. Oral Presentations:Dimitri Loupakos, Alejandro Madariaga, Ian Neuchterlein

23, 25 April. GROUP MEETING 5 THIS WEEK.

30 April, Monday. By 4 p.m., email me your report (with your last name as the first word, e.g. Jones.g492.doc) and leave a hardcopy with my secretary.

URL: http://www.rasmusen.org/g492/0.g492.htm. Indiana University, Department of Business Economics and Public Policy, in the Kelley School of Business , BU 456, 1309 East Tenth Street, Bloomington, Indiana 47405-1701, (812)855-9219. Comments: Erasmuse@Indiana.edu.