Blinder, Alan S., and Mark W. Watson. “Presidents and the US economy: An econometric
exploration.” American Economic Review 106.4 (2016): 1015-45.
https://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdf/10.1257/aer.20140913
In this question, you will obtain and analyze the data used by Blinder and Watson.
Note: All of the questions below can be answered by taking simple averages in excel. You do not need to
run regressions (though you are welcome to do so if you are comfortable with regressions). You might
also find it convenient to work with Excel’s data summary modules such as Pivot Tables and Pivot Graphs
(but this is by no means required).
Though some of your analysis will be related to Blinder and Watson’s, all of your comments should be
based on your own calculations and analysis, not on your reading of their work. The purpose of this
assignment is to have you study these issues using your own independent analysis.
A. Download the data from FRED https://fred.stlouisfed.org/ to fill in the spreadsheet posted on
the course website. Briefly describe your procedure for finding the data you downloaded. For
the S&P 500 only, download the data from https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/%5EGSPC/
(which has a much longer time series). You do not have to hand in the spreadsheet itself.
B. Did the economy do better under Republicans or Democrats? Choose several measures from
the spreadsheet to use in this analysis, and justify your choices. Consider several different
choices for how to define who was in power, including the party of the President, the House,
and Senate majorities. Do these choices matter?
C. How robust are your conclusions from part B to including/dropping extreme economic events
(such as the Great Depression, Great Recession, Volcker disinflation, and the COVID crisis).
Does including vs. excluding the Trump era affect the results?
D. So far, you have studied the relationship between the party in power, and contemporaneous
economic outcomes. One could also study economic outcomes immediately before or after a
political party comes into power. Which do you think is most appropriate? Why?
E. What do you conclude regarding the causal effect of Democrats vs. Republicans on the
economy. How convincing is the evidence? Feel free to draw both on your own analysis and
on results from Blinder and Watson (2016) in your discussion.

DETAILED ASSIGNMENT

20200923063005assignment2

• Finding limits of functions
• Checking continuity of function at a number c or on an interval
• Identifying where a given function is not differentiable from its graph
• Finding slope of the graph of a function at a point using the limit process
• Finding equation of the tangent line to the graph of the function at the given point
• Finding derivatives of functions : know how to use the rules discussed in class
• Application of derivative problems: Velocity, marginal cost, marginal revenue, and marginal profit problems
• Finding open intervals on which a function is increasing or decreasing, and its applications
• Finding relative/absolute maximum/minimum values of function and its applications

SAMPLE ASSIGNMENT

Sample-2

Watch the clip on Globalization trade and transnational corporations by the Khan Academy, https://www.khanacademy.org/test-prep/mcat/society-and-culture/demographics/v/globalization-trade-and-transnational-corporations (Links to an external site.)

Watch the clip on Sovereignty and Business, https://www.cnn.com/videos/style/2019/08/13/coach-givenchy-versace-apology-china-t-shirt-hadas-gold-vpx.cnn (Links to an external site.)

Write a short paragraph on each of the following questions (2 paragraphs total):

How has globalization affected business practice?

How has globalization affected state sovereignty?

SAMPLE ASSIGNMENT

Sample-2

1. Decide on the goal of your presentation. Make sure your goal is specific. Write your goal at the top of the outline.

• Are you informing the audience?
• Is there something they need to understand?
• Are you persuading the audience of taking an action? Signing up for something? Changing a behavior? Volunteering?
• Are you persuading the audience to hold a certain belief?

2. Plan the body of the presentation.

You need an introduction, at least three main points (no more than 4), the subpoints, and a conclusion.

I. Introduction (approximately 1 minute)

A. Opener or Attention Getter (statistics, quotes, images, stories, ask a question)

B. Significance of Topic (impact on public health globally or within a certain community)

C. Relevance to Audience (why should they want to know, why should they care)

D. Tell Them What You Are Going to Tell Them (a quick overview)

II. Body – Tell Them (approximately 3 minutes)

A. 1st Main Point (you can write main points as a word, a phrase, or a full sentence, your choice)

1. Subpoints (you do not need to have 3, you could have 4, but no less than 2)

2.

3.

B. 2nd Main Point

1. Subpoints (you do not need to have 3, you could have 4, but no less than 2)

2.

3.

C. 3rd Main Point

1. Subpoints (you do not need to have 3, you could have 4, but no less than 2)

2.

3.

III. Conclusion (approximately 1 minute)

A. Summary of Topic – Tell Them What You Told Them

B. Call to Action – What Do You Want Your Audience to Do (only if it was a persuasive speech)

C. Say “Thank you”.

SAMPLE ASSIGNMENT

Sample-2

1. If you slipped and fell on the ice and you landed on your tailbone, what specific structure would you land on? Answer should be from abdominopelvic structures in your lab manual you need to know.

2. Your index or pointer finger is what digit? Answer should be a number.

3. Is the thumb medial or lateral?

4. On what surface of your foot would you get sunburned if you were walking barefoot on a sunny, summer day at the beach?

5. What is found within the peritoneal cavity?

6. Is your right medial malleolus and right olecranon on the ipsilateral or contralateralside?

7. Circle the correct terms in the following sentence. The popliteal area is found on the pelvic/pectoral appendage and is distal/inferiorto the greater trochanter.

8. What is the plural term of phalanx?

9. Which of the following regions is not part of the upper limb? carpal/cubital/brachial/palmar/plantar

10. What plane of section is represented in the image?

Refer to image to answer questions 11-20. 

Be sure to pay attention to the question, is it asking for a specific feature or a general area?

11. Identify specific bony structure.

12. Identify specific feature on anterior portion of arm.

13. Identify anatomical name of digit

14. Name of bony structure.

15. Name of bony structure.

16. Identify specific area within circle

17. Specific name of feature.

18. Identify area

19. Identify area

20. Identify area

SAMPLE ASSIGNMENT

Sample-2

This week is going to add a ‘File Open’ option allowing selection of a file from the disk to be read into
the wxTextCtrl. This allows any text file to be loaded into the program for editing.
The existing wxEditor program (PW3) will be modified to include a file dialog according to the
following instructions. 3 items need to be added in the header file, and 3 items need to be added in the
source code file.
Modifications to the wxEditor project.
Header file: In wxEditorMain.h is the wxEditorFrame class declaration
1. Add a declaration for a wxFileDialog pointer in the Private access area just below the wxTextCtrl
pointer declaration:
wxFileDialog* openDialog;
2. The existing enum list declares ID items as follows:
enum
{
idMenuQuit = 1000,
ID_TextBox,
idMenuAbout
};
Add a new ID entry item for a ‘File Open’ menu item below the ID_TextBox: idMenuOpen,

DETAILED ASSIGNMENT

20200923002329pw4

2. Three zero coupon risk-free discount bonds of one, two and three year term to maturity are selling for, respectively, $950, $890 and $800. What would be the selling price today of a 10% coupon bond of 3 year maturity (maturity value $1,000)?

3. Consider a coupon bond, with the current period t = 0 market price $900, with payments:

               Discount (zero coupon) bonds of 1, 2 and 3 years maturity (all with maturity value of $1000) sell for respectively, 960, 900, 820 dollars. Is this coupon bond properly priced? If not, design an arbitrage argument to profit by the mispricing.

DETAILED ASSIGNMENT

20200923054141le_2____bond_concepts___summer_2020

1. Describe what an event is in probability. Then describe both simple and compound events.

2. Describe the types of data set relationships – complement, union, intersection, mutually exclusive or disjoint

3. Describe the general product rule

4. What does Bayes theorem do/show? What is the big-picture value of this method?

5. There are three types of probability: marginal, joint, and conditional, describe each and try to think of a reason why each would be important.

6. Describe the following 3 counting techniques: the basic counting principle, permutations, and combinations. See how many you can think of having a value in your field.

SAMPLE ASSIGNMENT

Sample-2

Prior to beginning work on this discussion forum, please read Chapter 11 in your Northouse (2019) textbook, Chapter 10 in your Kinicki and Williams (2008) textbook, and the article by Galli (2018), “Change Management Models: A Comparative Analysis and Concerns.” Then, choose one of the five change management models described in Galli’s (2018) article: Kurt Lewin’s change management model, Kotter’s 8-Step change model, the ADKAR model, the McKinsey 7-S model, and General Electric’s change acceleration process model. You will analyze the model you have chosen in your discussion post.

For your discussion, you will prepare an essay that could be used to teach work colleagues about the change management model you studied. In an initial post of at least 300 words, and citing at least two required scholarly sources, identify and describe the change management model you selected, providing sufficient information to help your classmates understand how they might be able to use the model in the workplace. Discuss both strengths and limitations of the model. Then, provide guidance to your fictitious work colleagues about leadership and management roles and responsibilities that would be required for them to implement the change management model you selected.

SAMPLE ASSIGNMENT

Sample-2

1. Crystal Systems (10 points)

            To the best of your ability, draw and label the defining components of each crystal system.  Describe the axis (a,b,c) and angle (α,β,γ) relationships.  Points are awarded for correct content, not artistry. List one or two minerals in each system.

DETAILED ASSIGNMENT

20200923053816lab_2___assignment__1_