I decided to delay the posting of this Part 2 (of a two-part series) in order to get more experience in these classes. I’m currently enjoying 14.121/14.122, 14.771, and Harvard’s Market Design class (Ec 2056a). All three of my grad classes are also being taken by undergrad friends whom I work on psets with and talk to about the course material. This shared experience makes the subjects a whole lot more fun. I’ll wrap up this series by presenting my characterizations of first-year and second-year classes.
First-year classes (14.121-14.124, 14.381-14.382, 14.451-14.454) are usually described as very functional. These are “toolbox” classes meant to equip the budding economist with an arsenal for tackling problems. The core material you’re learning can be very dry, but awesome theoretical or empirical applications are not in short supply. For instance, 14.121 covered consumer theory, producer theory, aggregation, and other core micro concepts, but also featured numerous General Equilibrium applications. My favorite was the testing of an elaborate theoretical risk-sharing model with data from three poor ICRISAT villages in India.
Second-year classes offer a much more narrow, yet concentrated view of a particular field in economics. These classes inundate you with papers upon papers of studies of that particular field. If you’re truly passionate about a field of economics and feel that you can handle tons of reading, take a field class! Not only will you hone your research skills; you might also discover that idea that leads to an exciting new research project in economics.