Summer Courses in the U.S.

Yale Conservation Finance Camp – June 6 – 10.

Economic Tools for Conservation – 2011 International Course at Stanford, August 15 – 26.

A Master’s Degree in Conservation?

Interesting programs at world class universities,

Cambridge MPhil in Conservation Leadership

Imperial College London MSc in Conservation Science

Oxford MSc Environmental Change and Management

University College London Conservation MSc

Yale Master of Environmental Management

UK University Rankings

The Complete University Guide has both a University League Table 2009, and Subject Tables 2009.

Best deal for a Master’s degree in Economics?

This has got to be one of the best deals around. I got this mail from the highly ranked Toulouse School of Economics,

Tuition fees for [the English language] Master’s degree amount around 300 Euros for one academic year. Social security (compulsory health insurance) for students amounts 200 Euros per academic year. For living expenses in Toulouse, you should count at least 500 Euros per month (survival) and more probably 700 to 800 Euros all included.

Best regards
Aude Schloesing

Toulouse School of Economics
Université Toulouse 1
Manufacture des Tabacs
31042 Toulouse Cedex (France)
tel: + 33 (0)5 61 12 87 65
fax: + 33 (0)5 61 12 86 37
tse@univ-tlse1.fr

Best universities in economics

1	Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)	USA	5.75
2	Harvard U	USA	5.56
3	Yale U	USA	4.99
4	Princeton U	USA	4.76
5	U Chicago	USA	4.64
6	U Toulouse I (Sciences Sociales)	France	3.87
7	U California – Berkeley	USA	3.77
8	Northwestern U	USA	3.73
9	New York U (NYU)	USA	3.66
10	London School of Economics	UK	3.57
11	U Pennsylvania	USA	3.51
12	U California – San Diego	USA	3.25
13	U California – Los Angeles	USA	3.19
14	Stanford U	USA	3.12
15	Boston U	USA	3.08
16	U Wisconsin – Madison	USA	3.07
17	U Rochester	USA	3.03
18	U Texas – Austin	USA	3.01
19	Columbia U	USA	2.93
20	Brown U	USA	2.85

Source: Productivity ranking from econphd.net. The ranking is based on the average number of equivalent papers published by a department’s top 15 authors.

Economics in Toulouse is now taught (in English) in the Toulouse School of Economics, research takes place in the excellent Institut D’Economie Industrielle.

The Paris School of Economics

Why start the new Paris School of Economics? Why not build up the already existing world-class Institut D’Economie Industrielle in Toulouse? (Here is an article about IDEI by David Warsh).

One possibility is that the IDEI is too free-market oriented for the French establishment. The French establishment, both on the left and on the right, is statist.

And of course there is a long French tradition of having the best of everything in Paris. A French academic who made it to one of the Paris institutes is not about to go into exile in the provinces. So if there is a large group of good economists in Paris, why not organize them into a school and gain critical mass?

There is now also a Toulouse School of Economics. It offers various programs, including a two year master’s degree program, taught in English.

History of Finance

Streaming videos of interviews with Harry Markowitz, William Sharpe, Paul Samuelson and Robert Merton from the American Finance Association.

Haidt on the five foundations of morality

Here is a video where Jonathan Haidt talks about the five foundations of morality,

1. harm/care,
2. fairness/reciprocity,
3. ingroup/loyalty,
4. authority/respect,
5. purity/sanctity

He makes the point that political liberals (in the American sense) have moral intuitions primarily based upon the first two foundations, and therefore misunderstand the moral motivations of political conservatives, who generally rely upon all five foundations (see also here).

But why exactly five and only five foundations? Any proof that there couldn’t be more?

Homage to Reid Bryson

Interview with Reid Bryson, “the father of the science of modern climatology.”

Via CCNet.

Top UK Universities

The Guardian has published its new ranking of UK universities. As usual Oxford and Cambridge are ranked highest. They are usually followed by Imperial College, London School of Economics, and University College London. This year’s surprise is University of St. Andrews, ranked fourth, behind Oxford, Cambridge, and Imperial.

St. Andrews is ranked 7th in the UK Good University Guide.

St. Andrews seems to be doing an excellent job with student satisfaction and teaching quality, but its employability and job placement performance is less than stellar.