Issue 33, Fall 2007

William A. McEachern, Editor

Odds and Ends

Until recently, the Journal of Economic Education was available online for free. Though this provided a valuable public service, free online access likely cut into subscriptions. Circulation fell from a peak of 1,578 in 1995 to 990 in 2006, including only 133 individual subscriptions, which are $65 per year for print only and $68 for print plus online access (http://www.heldref.org/jecone.php). The editors continue to search for creative ways to make articles available without cannibalizing subscriptions.

In 2004, to stop grade inflation, Princeton adopted a common grading standard aimed at limiting the share of A's to 35% of each undergraduate course. The policy seems to be working. The share of A's declined from an average of 47% during 2001 to 2004 to 41% during 2004 to 2007. In the humanities, A grades fell from 56% to 46%. Social-science A's dropped from 43% to 38%. Natural sciences, already the toughest graders, saw the smallest decrease, from 37% to 36%. Princeton officials note that the lower grades do not appear to have harmed undergraduate admissions to graduate study.

Speaking of grades, I figure I have given out over 30,000 exam grades. In those cases where I overlooked an answer or totaled the score incorrectly, students have never been shy about correcting any errors to improve their grades. I expect my mistakes are symmetrical—that is, I am just as likely to come up with a score that is too high as too low. But I don't recall a student ever asking me about a score or grade they believed was too high. This introduces a small but upward bias to our grading.

The discussion of student presentations in class reminded me that even in grade school I had to present a "floor talk" each week for a few minutes on a topic of my choice. Each school day, students drawn from a row of desks would get up and give a little talk. One day when my turn came, I decided to tell some jokes. Students seemed surprised and pleased, and the class came alive as we all had a good laugh. The next day every student in the next row got up and told jokes. Once the laugh fest died down, the teacher gently noted that while telling jokes did indeed require talking, and thus would be a "floor talk," she preferred that we offer information we could all learn from, so no more jokes. I still recall one I told, but I don't remember any other "floor talk" I gave.

Although British writer P.G. Wodehouse (of Bertie Wooster fame) lived on Long Island from 1952 until his death in 1975, it was said that until the end he still reckoned dollar prices in pounds and shillings.

A generation ago, the easiest way to determine the historical setting of a movie was to look at transportation of the day. Finer dating now comes from the look of personal computers and the size of cell phones, which have gone from brick size to bite size.

Wikipedia's "Economic Classroom Experiments" lists 20 experiments, tips on running these experiments, and links and related literature. Go to http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Economic_Classroom_Experiments.

Why are political scholars called political scientists, but economic scholars are mere economists? Probably because political scholars must not be confused with politicians. Besides, the term "economic scientists" might make us more of a soft target.

"Truth has no special time of its own. Its hour is now, always, and indeed then most truly when it seems most unsuitable to actual circumstances." —Albert Schweitzer

"Men become civilized not in proportion to their willingness to believe, but in proportion to their readiness to doubt."—H.L. Mencken

"Money has a nasty habit of disappearing."—Kevin Hassett

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