Math and Economics: Staying Ahead of Events

You don't have to look far to see why economics is important to understanding world events. Take the front page of any major newspaper.

The debate in Washington over the U.S. debt ceiling. The euro zone's struggles with Greece (and vice versa). The Arab spring. Investor's views of News Corp's value following revelations of phone hacking by journalists at one of its newspapers.

Guess who?

How could you begin to grasp the complexities of any of these titanic issues without examining the economic forces at work?

Perhaps less easy to understand is why it's important to understand mathematics in order to master economics.

Incoming students who have been taking the SAIS Online Math Tutorial this summer, with the help of seven DVDs covering 86 modules, may be asking themselves that question. As might prospective applicants.

I asked Prof. Erik Jones about this relationship between mathematics and economics. Here is what he told me:

"At SAIS we teach economics both for substantive reasons and for methodological reasons. We want students to understand how the economy works but we also want them to realize why we believe it works that way. The recent economic and financial crisis is a perfect illustration of the importance of this combination. Many people had simple rules of thumb to explain how liberalized capital markets should be more stable than tightly regulated markets; many fewer understood the importance of basic assumptions about human rationality that lay at the foundation of those rules of thumb. When those assumptions proved to be incorrect – as former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan explained to the House of Representatives – the whole edifice of free market economics came crashing down.

Prof. Erik Jones

"The connection between  the assumptions that underpin economic thought and the rules of thumb that guide ‘conventional wisdom’ works through logic as expressed in mathematical models. Those students who do not understand mathematics will never be able to trace back the links between what they think they know about how the economy works and what they assume to be true about the world writ large. As a consequence, they will never be able to anticipate what will happen should their assumptions prove incorrect. They will be trapped in the crowd, doing whatever everyone else is doing and hoping for the best. Our goal by teaching mathematics for economics is to help students avoid that fate. We don’t intend to turn SAIS students into mathematicians, but we do intend to give them the understanding that they will require to stay ahead of events."

If you're tempted to wager that the connection between mathematics and economics is relatively recent, think twice. The use of math in economics dates back at least to the 17th century before hitting its stride in the 19th.

I'm sure at least one of our readers can tell us more about the symbiotic rapport between math and economics -- if not now, then in a few more months.

Anyone seen this before?

In the meantime, let's get back to brass tacks. Incoming students are strongly encouraged to take both the pre-calculus and calculus tests online this summer before starting their course work. It's the best way to make sure you will thrive at SAIS.

Anyone who comes up short -- it happens -- will have an opportunity to take math catchup classes, either in pre-term or after, and to take the exams again.

The obvious question is: Am I required to take the math tests and to pass them?

The answer is less obvious. Do yourself a favor. Study the material, pass the tests and tackle economics with the confidence and skills you will need to succeed.

Questions? Send them to admissions@jhubc.it.

Nelson Graves

This week's grab bag: an updated map, missing DVDs, visas, and our survey

Before we turn to some housekeeping details, I have updated the map showing where the incoming SAIS Bologna students come from.

Currently the class of 2011-12 has passports from 51 countries. Two dozen of the students have dual passports. They have declared 45 countries as nations of first nationality, plus six others as secondary nationalities.

If you click on the placemarks on the map below, you will see the name of the country plus the number of students coming from that country.

This past year we had students from 34 nations (not including dual nationalities). So there will be one third more nationalities this coming year. We have students who have enrolled from four countries that have never been represented at SAIS Bologna: Bahamas, Mongolia, Qatar and Zimbabwe.

With the ebb and flow of enrollment, these figures can change in coming weeks. But at this point we are looking at the greatest number of nationalities at SAIS Bologna since it was founded 56 years ago.


View SAIS Bologna 2011-12 class in a larger map

MATH DVDs


We have tried to make sure that all incoming SAIS Bologna students have the math DVDs that are useful for preparing for the economics courses. Eventually each incoming student should have two sets of DVDs:

- One set entitled "Interactive Pre-Calculus Course" with 4 DVD disks inside covering 52 modules;
- One set entitled "Interactive Basic Calculus for Economists Course" with 3 DVD disks inside covering 34 modules.

If you have one set but not the other, please send an email to admissions@jhubc.it.

Please keep in mind that it takes some time to work through either set of DVDs, so if you have one but not the other, you are not out on a limb yet.

The DVDs reflect the importance of math in learning economics. Students taking the Online Math Tutorial will have a chance to prove their understanding of pre-calculus and calculus. If a student has not passed one or the other of the exams in the Online course, they will have a chance to prove their understanding during pre-term in either Washington or Bologna.

A student who does not pass the tests either during the Online course or in pre-term will have a chance during the first class of microeconomics.

Keep in mind that while each student is encouraged to pass both the pre-calculus and the calculus exams, one is not required to pass them to proceed with economics. But economics sure is easier with a solid foundation in math.

VISAS

Questions about visas have tapered off. We hope that means that everyone is making progress. If not, be sure to contact us.

SURVEY

A total of 77 readers have completed our little survey. Thank you to those who have taken time to do so. Already it has provided us with very useful feedback and ideas on how to improve our work. As promised earlier, we will provide a summary of the feedback, along with some data on readership, in a post later this summer.

If you would like to participate in the survey but do not have the link, please send an email to admissions@jhubc.it, and we'll send it along to you.

OTHER

There must be other things people need to know, but I've run out of issues.

Your thoughts?

Nelson Graves

A DVD apology and other odds & ends

It's Friday -- time to tackle housekeeping matters. I'd rather not start with an apology but am compelled to do so.

DVDs
As everyone knows, SAIS provides each incoming student with DVDs to help them brush up on mathematics. One set has four DVDs with pre-calculus learning modules, while the other has three DVDs with calculus modules. The DVDs complement the SAIS Online Math Tutorial, which is accessed through the Blackboard course website, as John Harrington, dean of Academic Affairs in Washington, explained in an email to all incoming students on May 25.

Some incoming students who applied for admission through Bologna -- all of the non-Americans except a handful -- have received the pre-calculus DVDs but not the calculus cassettes. Yesterday we sent out fresh calculus DVDs to a number of students, and we'll do the same with more on Monday when the Bologna Center reopens (it is closed on Fridays all summer, until mid-August).

A humble bow of apology

If you have received one set and not the other, then you are a victim of the DVD mix-up, which is entirely our fault. If you have not done so already, please send an email to admissions@jhubc.it with "Missing DVDs" in the subject line and your your mailing address in the text, stipulating which DVDs you did not receive, and we'll set things right.

If you have received no DVDs whatsoever, please wait until Tuesday, June 21 to see if they arrive. If they have not arrived by then, please send an email to admissions@jhubc.it explaining.

My apologies for this glitch and my thanks to all of you for your patience and understanding.

VISAS
Students coming to SAIS Bologna this autumn from outside the European Union are busy getting their visas. Requirements vary greatly from one Italian diplomatic mission to another. Some consulates or embassies are very familiar with SAIS, others not.

The letters, which all of the non-U.S. incoming students from outside the EU should have received from us and which are written in Italian, are meant to reassure the diplomatic authorities on a few scores:

• That the student has been admitted to the SAIS Bologna Center, which is recognized by the Italian government;
• That the student will have the emergency medical insurance that is required of foreign students;
• That SAIS Bologna is in close contact with the Foreigners Office of the Bologna police (Questura) and will help the student obtain a permesso di soggiorno if needed;
• That SAIS Bologna has an adequate number of apartments at its disposal and that the student in question will be able to rent one of them;

The letter asks that the authorities consider the letter as a substitute for an apartment rental contract.

In most cases, this letter gives the diplomatic authorities what they need to issue a student visa. If for some reason they read the letter and still balk, please get in touch with us.

If you are a citizen of an EU member state, you do not have to obtain a student visa. (Some might take that for granted, but believe me, it was not that way in my day, when even to cross borders between any two European countries, you had to show your passport.)

SURVEY
We are asking readers of this blog for feedback to help us make it better. Many readers would have received the link to the survey via email. The online survey takes a few minutes to fill out and is anonymous.

If you would like to participate in the survey and have not received the link, please send an email to admissions@jhubc.it, with "Blog Survey" in the subject line, and we'll be happy to send the link to you.

Already 58 people have responded to the survey. There is a critical mass of opinion emerging that will help us shape this blog and tailor it to readers' needs. Thank you for your comments, suggestions and criticism.

By the way, in the summer we will share with readers a summary of the results of the survey along with some readership statistics. Transparency is our watchword.

PRE-TERM
A reminder that the deadline for registering for pre-term in Bologna is July 5. For more information, click here. Pre-term starts on August 29 and runs until September 26.

If you are interested in attending pre-term at SAIS Washington (July 25-August 23), the deadline for registering is Friday, June 24 -- one week from today. For more information, click here.

It is not recommended that students in Bologna pre-term take two economics courses or an economics course and a core course. That would end up being a whopping amount of work. Remember, these are full-term courses squeezed into 4 weeks. However, survival Italian would be an option -- and I would recommend that all students who do not know Italian learn some while they are here. It makes the experience more meaningful.

HOUSING
Some incoming students have asked if they can be in touch with Salvatore, our housing consultant, before he starts showing apartments on August 18. Alas, he is not available. It will be a level playing field from August 18, and he will have enough apartments so that there is no reason to panic. As we've already said, finding an apartment is just about the easiest thing of all thanks to Salvatore's help.

ADMISSIONS PACKET
We've also been asked if we will be sending out paper versions of the admissions letter and other admissions materials that admitted students received. I'm afraid not -- we are trying to go almost entirely digital. (Yes, I'd love for the math DVDs to be online, and for us to have a completely digitalized application system -- dreams that may come true next year.)

If you need a paper version, we will leave it to you to print it out your end. If you need an original copy of your admissions letter or some other document in its original form, drop us a line. But even the most bureaucratic of authorities are moving away from paper, although we realize not all.

Next week we'll show you another award-winning piece of academic work and an exam that was taken by students of a popular core course.

Nelson Graves

P.S. I almost forgot. Yes, there is no quiz this week. The feedback on the survey suggests that the weekly quiz has done its part in building readership loyalty but that it's time to think of other approaches. Of course if someone wants to propose a quiz question, we would be delighted to consider it.

Weekly quiz

It would not be a weekly quiz without some housekeeping first, right?

Incoming students have lots of questions. This is entirely normal. Before writing an email, please make sure that you've read the material on the web page for incoming students. There you will find the answers to many questions. And do not forget the Guidebook for Incoming Students. It tackles myriad matters: visas, health issues, finances, communications, travel and housing among them.

Many of you are experiencing the joy of applying for a visa. Alas, like tuition it is a fact of life. Please do not panic. Each of you who applied through the Bologna Admissions Office should have received a letter, in Italian, that provides Italian diplomatic authorities with some important information. The letter informs the authorities that:

• You have been admitted to SAIS Bologna and gives them the dates of your attendance in 2011-12;
• SAIS Bologna is recognized by the Italian state;
• SAIS Bologna has an ample number of apartments at its disposal, and you will be able to choose from among them;
• If you are a non-EU citizen, SAIS Bologna will make sure you have the emergency medical insurance that is required by law;
• We request that the diplomatic authorities return the letter to you along with your visa so that you can obtain, if necessary, a permesso di soggiorno once in Bologna.

This letter has been written so that the Italian consular authorities have the information they need to issue a visa. Of course different embassies and consulates have different approaches. If you hit a brick wall, get back to us.

Enough of the logistics. On to the quiz -- which this week is for the daring only.

Earlier this week we published a post with a question from the final exam in Prof. Akin's International Monetary Theory class. Click here for the exam question.

What is the answer to the first part of the question, which asks: 

I'll give you a break: unlike during a real exam, you can ask for help on this one. The key is to provide the right answer.

This week the winner gets a SAIS Bologna tee shirt plus a free lunch at Giulio's -- with Prof. Akin.

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For the answer to the quiz question, click here.

You can also see it here:

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Next week:

Tuesday: What a winning paper looks like
Thursday: Getting to the core of international politics
Friday: Weekly quiz

Nelson Graves

Weekly Quiz

Before we dive into the weekly quiz, some housekeeping matters.

All of you who will be attending SAIS Bologna in 2011-12 should have received your JHED by now. Please contact us if you have not. If you have not yet activated your email account, please do so as soon as possible.

Your calculus DVDs are in the mail and should reach you soon. 

Also, all incoming students who applied through the Bologna Admissions Office should have received their original admission and visa letters. If you have not, you know where to find us. 

And now, on to the quiz:

At last week's SAIS Bologna graduation ceremony, three students received awards for academic excellence. Who are the awards named after? 

The first person to reply correctly gets a SAIS Bologna tee shirt. The answer on Monday.

Amina Abdiuahab