EA - ETGP 2022: materials, feedback, and lessons for 2023 by trammell

Link to original articleWelcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: ETGP 2022: materials, feedback, and lessons for 2023, published by trammell on September 22, 2022 on The Effective Altruism Forum. From August 20 to September 2, I ran a summer course in Oxford titled “Topics in Economic Theory and Global Prioritization”, or ETGP. It aimed to provide a rigorous introduction to a selection of topics in economic theory that appear especially relevant to the project of doing the most good. It was designed primarily for economics graduate students considering careers in global priorities research. The purpose of this post is to share the course materials as presented this year, the feedback, and a summary of the lessons learned. I hope it helps potential attendees get a better sense of whether they would like to attend next year, and potential organizers of similar programs get a better sense of whether and how to go about it. I’ve erred on the side of thoroughness regarding the feedback and lessons learned. A brief summary is that the course was rated very highly, and that I think this suggests people should consider organizing more structured courses, instead of sticking to the more common “EA formula” of reading groups and summer research fellowships. The course was sponsored by Forethought and made possible by operations support from the Global Priorities Institute. If you would like to be notified when applications open for next year, email me at [email protected]. Course materials and program schedule The lecture slides and exercises, as presented this year (with corrections), can be found here. Feel free to use them for any purpose. The program was scheduled as follows: Saturday, August 20 - Sunday, August 21: two 1.5h lectures per day on philosophical and mathematical background material, respectively. Monday, August 22 - Friday, August 26: two 1.5h lectures per day on various EA-relevant macroeconomic theory topics. Saturday, August 27: (optional) punting in the afternoon. Monday, August 29 - Friday, September 2: two 1.5h lectures per day on various EA-relevant microeconomic theory topics. Attendees were given the option to stay for a (totally unstructured) third week to discuss research ideas with each other, schedule meetings with others in Oxford, and so on. The lectures, except for those on the first day, came with exercises. Every lecture-day except the first two (August 20-21) opened with a 1-hour session in which I went over previous lecture-day’s exercises. They were not graded. Lectures and lunches were held at Trajan House, where GPI and Forethought are based. Breakfasts, dinners, and housing were held at Worcester College, Oxford, except for an opening dinner and a closing dinner, which were held at pubs. Applicant and attendee characteristics There were 179 applicants. 46 were accepted (26%), and 34 attended at least in part. Educational backgrounds of the attendees: 1 was an assistant professor of economics (3%) 16 were enrolled in, or about to begin, doctoral programs in economics (47%) 3 were enrolled in or about to begin master’s programs in economics, or recent graduates of master’s programs not doing either of the above (9%) 6 were doing pre-doctoral research / research assistance in economics (18%) 6 were undergraduates studying economics, or recent graduates not doing any of the above (18%) 2 had never pursued an economics degree (6%). (One had a graduate degree in a related field, and the other was pursuing one) Genders of the attendees: 29 were male (85%) 5 were female (15%) 45 of the applicants (25%) and 9 of the admits (20%) were female. I noticed the relative scarcity of female applicants when reviewing the applications, and I did my best to ensure that they were not rejected unfairly. Feedback The feedback survey received 24 responses (71%). Aggregate results are as follows: Overall eva...