Graduate Student Section Track Sessions

Have you ever wondered if you could make it as a reviewer? - What are the expectation of reviewers? - How do you get involved? - Is there a criteria for judgement?

Presentations, discussions, and question-and-answer sessions to help new teachers plan, organize, and implement courses from the ground up. The session will cover where to start when planning courses, designing quizzes and tests, preparing lectures, managing time between teaching and research, tricks of the trade, and general guidelines to follow in order to create a positive teaching and learning experience.

Presentations, discussions, and question-and-answer sessions from employers who were at the 2011 AAEA Employment Center or have been involved in the hiring process in the last year. This session will include tips about qualities interviewers liked and disliked and insight into what employers are looking for in a successful candidate.

The establishment of a successful research agenda is paramount to any individual wishing to succeed in academia. Given the variety of techniques and concepts, survey methodology as a form of primary data collection often intimidates researchers. This session will discuss how individuals can use surveys as a tool to help establish a successful research agenda. Topics discussed will include basic survey concepts, use of design and incentives to influence responses and response rates, and effectiveness of survey modes. Researchers will also discuss their effective use of surveys with groups at different stages in the supply chain, as well as tips and pitfalls of the survey process.

This session offers the opportunity for AAEA Teaching Award recipients to share teaching tips and have a dialogue with AAEA members. The emphasis is on winning strategies that have worked for them; the approaches, techniques, and/or teaching styles they consider to be instrumental to their success in the classroom. While they may utilize specific subject-matter examples to illustrate their points, the emphasis will on pedagogical approaches to improving education in our profession. The goal is to share ideas on what successful teachers are doing in and out of the classroom to facilitate learning. Contributions from audience members, in the form of shared experiences, questions, and observations, are both welcomed and considered a key part of this organized symposium. The session will open with a brief introduction and overview (five minutes) by the moderator. Each of the three presenters will then briefly comment on their successful strategies (15 minutes each) after which the moderator will facilitate a discussion among the presenters and the audience (40 minutes). Presenters are expected to provide the audience with written outlines of their major points.

This organized symposium aims to help AAEA members who conduct research related to institutional and behavioral economics, especially graduate students and junior faculty, to identify publishing strategies and outlets. While classical institutional economics, new institutional economics, and behavioral economics may overlap, and while a particular researcher or paper may draw on insights or methods from more than one of these areas, each speaker will focus primarily on one area. Speakers will discuss general publication strategies, strategies relating specifically to IBES research, and potential outlets for research in their assigned area.

The Extension and Graduate Student sections of the AAEA will conduct a competition for graduate students on Extension programs. This competition involves Extension and Outreach applications, plans, and programs as developed by the graduate student competitors. A main purpose of the competition is to encourage graduate students to include in their professional education some appropriate and well developed Extension relevant analysis and planning related to their overall program.