[gov3009-l] Applied Stats Workshop: Nakamura & Steinsson, Wed @noon, CBRSS

*************************************** Research Workshop in Applied Statistics *************************************** Please join us this Wednesday @ noon at CBRSS, the Center for Basic Research in the Social Sciences, 34 Kirkland Street, Rm 22, for "Econometric Learning", presented by Emi Nakamura and Jon Steinsson. Draft of paper available at http://www.courses.fas.harvard.edu/~gov3009/Calendar/learning.pdf FROM THE PAPER: "Much economic analysis of decision-making focuses on how agents should maximize expected utility in the context of a known stochastic model. Yet, much of what makes decision-making hard is developing the appropriate model rather than optimizing once the model has been agreed upon. We provide a general framework for thinking about this aspect of economic behavior. We emphasize 3 main points. First, model choice is an important aspect of rationality when the true model is unknown. Second, modelling is a costly activity, and changes in the costs of modelling have important effects on peoples' decisions about which model to use. Third, one's choice of model often has externality effects on other people. As a consequence of these externalities, firms and governments often have an incentive to intervene in the model formation process. We follow in the footsteps of Savage (1954) and Hansen and Sargent (2000) in suggesting that microtheory and econometrics are not far apart as they might seem from the familiar dichotomy between empirical and theoretical research." As always, lunch will be provided. Contact information, the current schedule, and previous presentations may be found at the course web site: http://www.courses.fas.harvard.edu/~gov3009/ ****************************************** The Research Workshop in Applied Statistics is a forum for graduate students, faculty, and visiting scholars to present and discuss work in progress and exchange ideas. It is intended as a tour of Harvard's statistical innovations and applications with weekly stops in different disciplines such as economics, epidemiology, medicine, political science, psychology, public policy, public health, sociology and statistics. The topics of papers presented in previous years included missing data, survey analysis, Bayesian simulation, sample selection, and models for election and portfolio choice. Faculty and student participants in the workshop present their current projects, and guest speakers also give occasional presentations. The workshop provides an excellent opportunity for informal interaction between graduate students and faculty from a variety of disciplines. Course credit is available for students as either an upper-level Government or Sociology class. Lunch is provided. If you are interested, note that all events are held at noon, in Room 22, Center for Basic Research in Social Sciences (CBRSS, 34 Kirkland St., this is the yellow building across the street from William James Hall). Contact information and previous presentations may be found at the course web site: http://www.courses.fas.harvard.edu/~gov3009/ To join the gov3009 mailing list, send e-mail to gov3009-l-request(a)fas.harvard.edu with the following text message: subscribe end Questions? Please contact the workshop coordinator, Alexis Diamond, at <adiamond(a)fas.harvard.edu>