Senior Research Workshop I In this first semester, students will design and begin their projects. Emphasis will be on designing a novel research question (while making the case for its importance) and an appropriate strategy for answering it. This requires immersion in the academic literature on the topic. General research principles and tools will be taught in class, as a group, while those specific to individual projects will be covered in one-on-one meetings. By the end of the term, students will outline their plan for completing the project, including demonstrating that it is a feasible research question for which the necessary information (e.g., data or source materials) is available or can be generated by the student (e.g., lab or other experiment).

Microeconomic Theory Microeconomic theory concentrates on the study of the determination of relative prices and their importance in shaping the allocation of resources and the distribution of income in an economy. We will study the optimizing behavior of households in a variety of settings: buying goods and services, saving, and labor supply decisions. We will also examine the behavior of firms in different market structures. Together, the theories of household and firm behavior help illumine contemporary economic issues (discrimination in labor markets, mergers in the corporate world, positive and negative externalities, for example).

Game Theory Game theory is general in scope and has been used to provide theoretical foundations for phenomena in most of the social and behavioral sciences. Economic examples include market organization, bargaining, and the provision of public goods. Examples from other behavioral sciences include social dilemmas and population dynamics. In this course students will learn the basics of what constitutes a game and how games are solved.

Research in Behavioral and Experimental Economics In this seminar we will consider current research topics in behavioral and experimental economics. Although the theme for the course is likely to change from semester to semester, all students will design their own study, gather decision-making data, and write a research paper summarizing their main findings.

Senior Research Workshop II In this second semester of the senior research workshop sequence, the focus is on the execution of the research plan developed in ECON 0701.  Most instruction is now one-on-one but the workshop will still meet as a group to discuss and practice the presentation of results in various formats (seminars, poster sessions, et cetera) to the rest of the workshop and others in the college and broader communities. Feedback and critiques from such presentations will be incorporated into the project, which will culminate in a research paper in the style of an economics journal article.

Jeffrey Carpenter

Reviews and ratings for Jeffrey Carpenter at Middlebury College.Jeffrey Carpenter teaches Senior Research Workshop I, Micro Theory, Game Theory and more.  Explore top rated instructors and find the best for you.Is Jeffrey Carpenter good ? Find out on MiddCourses.

Carpenter was good at explaining all the topics. Class was very lecture-driven and corresponded to each week's problem set. There were 3 exams throughout the semester plus one final, all weighted the same, and you were allowed to drop / skip one of them.

The exams are difficult - along with the problem sets. I dedicate a lot of my time to office hours but found that once I get the hang of the types of questions in the Pset the exams aren't that bad. Exams are 90% of the overall grade though

The class is super math heavy. Even though it's only calc 1, the derivatives do get pretty hard especially if you haven't taken math since high school so I'd review calc 1 before taking this class. Tests are hard but you can drop one which makes it easier for grades.