(Academic Skills) Unit 8: Wealth, continued

Can you remember the the so-called Big 5 personality types?

1. O

2. C

3. E

4. A

5. N

Signposting:

1   Let’s ____ turn to ...

2 I’d like to start ____ outlining ...

3   So ____ give an example ...

4   a ____ point ...

5 I want to come back to that a bit later ____.

a introduce a section of the lecture

b move to a new topic

c signal a point that will be reinforced later in the lecture

d to support a claim

e to signal an important idea

In these examples of signposting expressions there are two missing words. Add the words you think will complete them.

1 Having looked at key concepts let’s now recent research on the topic.

2 I’d like to start the three main areas of research that I’m going to talk about.

3 So to example, a person in the fourth category is likely to donate money to charity.

4 Earlier a study by Matz, Gladstone and Stillwell ...

5 So those are some example case studies – I want to to them later on

6 This is relevant to high income earners. What I that is people whose salary is over $100,000 a year

7 Now that we’ve looked at four different research studies, I’d like some specific examples

Note taking:

Well-being and salary levels - 3 studies

1. $75,000 (Kahneman & Deaton 2010)

increase of wellbeing up to 75k

2. $80,000 – $200,000 (Clingingsmith 2016)

clear rise in wb up 80k

80k- 200k much smaller rise

no rise after 200k

3. ‘Satiation point’ (Stevenson & Wolfers 2013)

found no ‘Satiation point’ due to increase in wealth

Extension


Read the extract:

"Markets create wealth. Okay, so I used to teach contract law, and if you really want to go back to first principles: On the first day, I used to take my watch off and I would sell it to someone in class. We’d agree on a price, $20. Then the question I always asked the students was: What did the buyer value the watch at? Much of the class would say $20.

That’s not the right answer.

Discuss why the writer feels "$20" is not the right answer.

Now read on

All we know is that the person would rather have the watch than have the $20 bill. What did you know about the value I placed on it? Exactly the inverse. I’d rather have the $20 bill than have the watch. Now, most people think the benefit of markets is: I walked away with a $20 bill, great, which I valued more highly than the watch, and you walked away with the watch that you valued more highly than the $20, but look at all the excess value there.

Maybe you wanted that watch because it completed your fabulous watch collection or you desperately needed a watch or it was so attractive to you that the value you placed on it would be in the hundreds of dollars. You got all that surplus value, and me, I really needed that $20. I had an investment opportunity over here for that $20 that has yielded a manifold return for me. That’s how markets create additional value."

- U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren

1. Is Senator Warren right?

2. Is this always how markets work?