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.

The exams are heavily curved, so they really aren't something to worry about too much. Found the first one to be by far the easiest. Problem sets are helpful to do before the tests, but sometimes it can feel like the material on the tests is pretty different. 

I found Micro Theory to be a lot harder than Macro Theory. The exams were a big jump from the problem sets. There was a problem set due every week, they weren't too long or tedious. The exams were the hardest part and the review sessions were always packed.

Carpenter is a very good and strong professor. He has high knowledge for the material and is very matter of fact and straightforward when teaching the course. The grade is dependent pretty much entirely on 4 tests (worst one dropped), but they are graded fairly and curved very nicely. 