by Stephen Malpezzi, Professor and Lorin and Marjorie Tiefenthaler Distinguished Chair in Real Estate
Students are filtering back, and we’re gearing up for another rocking academic year. The streets are filled with students and their friends and parents, and vans and trailers full of the necessities of another year in Madison.
Do you miss the reading lists and syllabi you used to receive each September? Well, you can get a head start at your lifelong-learning ‘semester’ by reading through the little list here at our blog where I posted the latest Top 12 “Reading for Life” entries. (Comments welcome!) But I’m writing today mainly to bring you some news.
Last year, after several turns as Department Chair, and two years as Academic Director of the Graaskamp Center, I turned the Center directorship into the more-than-capable hands of Morris Davis. I was planning to spend more time on teaching and research. But (great!) events intervened, and I stepped in as Department Chair once again last fall, when François Ortalo-Magné became our new Dean.
I’m very excited about the directions François is taking our School. School-wide initiatives that he’s spearheading focus on increasing the impact of our research on business and public policy; providing a transformational student experience through innovations in the way we teach; and providing faculty, staff, students and all of us with a “Great Platform for Great Work.” During the coming year you will learn more about these initiatives both through our blog but also the WSB’s website.
Today I’m writing to tell you more about another positive change. Recently Dean Ortalo-Magné made it official: my colleagues and I are very pleased that Professor Abdullah Yavas has accepted the chairmanship of the Department of Real Estate and Urban Land Economics.
Professor Yavas is well known among real estate academics as one of the most innovative and productive researchers in our field; several years ago we were very excited to lure him to Madison from Penn State, where he was a stalwart member of their fine faculty for 17 years. As many readers of this blog already know, Abdullah is also a faculty member of deep experience across a number of other dimensions, including administration; he’s one of only two real estate academics I know who’s served as president of a university!
I know readers of this blog will join François and me, and the rest of our faculty, in congratulating Abdullah, and thanking him for taking on this important responsibility. Check out Abdullah’s bio, if you have not already done so.
I must make a personal clarification as well. The LAST time I stepped down as Department Chair (!), I received a number of messages wishing me well in retirement. Retirement? Let me be very clear, I am NOT retiring.
I will be doing whatever I can, as so many others will, to support our School and in particular our Real Estate Program’s management team of Abdullah and Center Academic Director Morris Davis, and of course our Graaskamp Center Executive Director Mike Brennan, in the coming year and beyond. I’ll be expanding my teaching responsibilities, helping the School with the new Business Analytics initiative (including but not limited to improving our students’ Excel skills), and working to focus the efforts of Real Estate and other parts of the School and UW on some important economic development issues. Forthcoming blog posts will fill you in on some new Graaskamp Center initiatives on economic development, with an initial focus on the Midwest.
This year, in addition to teaching urban economics, I’m excited to be teaming up with Mike Hershberger to teach valuation, and with Erwan Quintin to revive our housing economics class (last taught in 2002!) As we bring these courses online this fall, we’ll be looking to make good use of the resources François and donors including real estate alum Milo Pinkerton are bringing to the teaching innovation initiatives that François mentions in the attachment.
We have plenty of other news to share, notably the fact that our newest faculty member, Assistant Professor Jaime Luque, is now on campus and preparing his first courses, in urban economics and real estate finance. You’ve probably already read about Jaime. In the ensuing months, you’ll be hearing much more from Abdullah and Morris, and Mike, and our other faculty and staff, about the state of our Program and our industry. At the School level, you’ll hear from François and his management team. Rest assured that you’ll continue to hear from me, too. After nine years of administrative responsibilities I’m looking forward to a little more time for teaching and research, but I will continue to be actively involved in all aspects of the Graaskamp Center and our real estate Program. Especially writing more postings for Wisconsin Real Estate Viewpoint!
Showing posts with label Reading for Life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reading for Life. Show all posts
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Friday, May 25, 2012
Reading for Life: The 2012 Dynamic Dozen!
by Stephen Malpezzi, Department Chair, Professor and Lorin and Marjorie Tiefenthaler Distinguished Chair in Real Estate
Sorry, I couldn’t do a Top Ten. Had to be at least a dozen. Then it turned into a baker’s
dozen. Here they are in reverse alphabetical order. (Why? So I had a reason to put our
blog as #1!)
13. Anderson, Max and Peter Escher. The MBA Oath: Setting a Higher Standard for Business Leaders. Penguin Books, 2010.
Perhaps I was inspired to choose this one because as I write, the news of the day includes Hungary’s president Pal Schmitt resigning because he apparently plagiarized large sections of his PhD dissertation; Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson has just stepped down after only four months on the job because he misrepresented his academic credentials on his resume; Wal‐Mart’s in hot water over possible violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in obtaining real estate permissions in Mexico (and an ensuing possible cover‐up); and then there’s the plethora of ethical issues connected to the Great Financial Crisis, before, during and after. Anderson and Escher are among the leaders of a movement to have MBA students adopt a sort of Hippocratic Oath for business. You might find the oath idea itself speaks to you, or not; but either way this little book, written by MBA students, frames some very timely isues, and provides a useful guide to additional reading and reflection.
12. Brooks, David. The Social Animal. Random House, 2011.
Brooks is best known as a conservative political commentator, but is also an intellectual omnivore. His increasing interest in what modern psychology can teach us about economic and life decisions parallels my own. In an apparent homage to Rousseau’s Emile, he follows the life paths of two fictional characters, Harold and Erica, to illustrate. Whether you find this particular device effective or distracting (or both?), it’s a fluid introduction. (See also Kahneman’s book, below).
11. Chinn, Menzie D. and Jeffrey A. Frieden. Lost Decades: The Making of America's Debt Crisis and the Long Recovery. WW Norton & Co Inc., 2011.
Debt?? We’re in debt??? Who knew? Well, we all know it, but why have we run up such a debt in (relative to World Wars) peacetime? Here’s a scholarly but well‐written overview of the problem, its sources (often misunderstood!) and some solutions.
10. Cowen, Tyler. The Great Stagnation: How America Ate All the Low‐Hanging Fruit of Modern History, Got Sick, and Will (Eventually) Get Better. Amazon, 2011.
An interesting short monograph on the economy and its future. Also of interest, an early example of a book published electronically (though now after its success, it’s also available in a paper version).
9. Eichengreen, Barry J. Exorbitant Privilege: The Rise and Fall of the Dollar and the Future of the International Monetary System. Oxford University Press, 2011.
The U.S. has a number of strengths; one of those is that the dollar happens to be the world’s reserve currency. Will it be so indefinitely? I remember this was a hot issue during my student days in the 70s. It’s back. Eichengreen is perhaps our leading scholar of international monetary history.
8. French, K. R., M. N. Baily, et al. The Squam Lake Report: Fixing the Financial System. Princeton University Press, 2010.
Gives lie to the canard that economists can never agree on anything. Fifteen top financial scholars, of varying political and academic backgrounds, provide a remarkably sharp and concise set of recommendations for fixing our financial system.
7. Glaeser, Edward. Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier. Penguin, 2011.
A fine overview of the place of cities in the economy and society, well‐written by Harvard’s top urban economist. A few glitches – e.g. his data on densities in some developing country cities is off the mark – but I think he gets all the big stuff right. And it’s a much better read than your typical urban economics textbook.
6. Haskins, Ron and Isabel Sawhill. Creating an Opportunity Society. Washington, D.C., Brookings Institution, 2009.
Everyone knows that income inequality has been rising in the U.S., but until I read the literature surveyed and the data presented in this book, I was unaware just how much our vaunted individual economic mobility had eroded. By some meaningful measures the U.S. is now less mobile than many European countries (something that rarely makes the news). Haskins and Sawhill give a careful reading of the evidence, and some very sensible prescriptions to help the U.S. get its mobility mojo back.
5. Kahneman, Daniel. Thinking, Fast and Slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011.
Models of rational choice are the bread and butter of economists, myself included. But not even I walk down the supermarket aisle plugging everything into my personal translog utility function. Psychologist Kahneman won a Nobel Prize for his work bringing psychology into the study of economics (“behavioral economics”). This is a very readable introduction to how the brain goes back and forth between intuitive thinking (“System 1” or “fast thinking”) and more analytic, rational thinking (“System 2,” “slow thinking”). We need both. The book Malcolm Gladwell probably meant to write when he wrote Blink.
4. Malpezzi, Stephen. A Primer on Real Estate and the Aggregate Economy: Know Your Macro Indicators. James A. Graaskamp Center for Real Estate. 2011.
OK, a little self-promotion here. But I think it’s a very handy and practical introduction to tracking the U.S. economy’s basic macro data.
3. Mann, Thomas E. and Norman J. Ornstein. It's Even Worse than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided with the New Politics of Extremism. Basic Books, 2012.
You’ve figured out by now that solving our deficit problems, financial crises, and many other issues are not going so well, more because of politics than because we don’t know what to do. Mann and Ornstein have revised and extended their 2008 book The Broken Branch to document how we arrived at this point. Especially controversial because, while giving plenty of “credit” to the Democrats, they claim that the Republicans are much more responsible for the current environment; and this from Ornstein, a well‐known conservative scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. (Other recent books, including Tom Coburn’s Debt Bomb, spread the blame around more evenly). Whether in the end you share Mann and Ornstein’s views or not, you’ll learn from the detailed discussion of the details behind our political impasses. A good sifting‐and‐winnowing candidate.
2. U.S. Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report: Final Report of the National Commission on the Causes of the Financial and Economic Crisis in the United States, U.S. Government Printing Office, 2011.
Three reports in one – the majority report and two minority reports. Well written, lots of details, and – free! At least the pdf version.
1. Of course, the Wisconsin Real Estate Viewpoint! Read it. Know it. Live it.
For previous other recommendations from Steve's Reading for Life list, click here.
Sorry, I couldn’t do a Top Ten. Had to be at least a dozen. Then it turned into a baker’s
dozen. Here they are in reverse alphabetical order. (Why? So I had a reason to put our
blog as #1!)
13. Anderson, Max and Peter Escher. The MBA Oath: Setting a Higher Standard for Business Leaders. Penguin Books, 2010.
Perhaps I was inspired to choose this one because as I write, the news of the day includes Hungary’s president Pal Schmitt resigning because he apparently plagiarized large sections of his PhD dissertation; Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson has just stepped down after only four months on the job because he misrepresented his academic credentials on his resume; Wal‐Mart’s in hot water over possible violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in obtaining real estate permissions in Mexico (and an ensuing possible cover‐up); and then there’s the plethora of ethical issues connected to the Great Financial Crisis, before, during and after. Anderson and Escher are among the leaders of a movement to have MBA students adopt a sort of Hippocratic Oath for business. You might find the oath idea itself speaks to you, or not; but either way this little book, written by MBA students, frames some very timely isues, and provides a useful guide to additional reading and reflection.
12. Brooks, David. The Social Animal. Random House, 2011.
Brooks is best known as a conservative political commentator, but is also an intellectual omnivore. His increasing interest in what modern psychology can teach us about economic and life decisions parallels my own. In an apparent homage to Rousseau’s Emile, he follows the life paths of two fictional characters, Harold and Erica, to illustrate. Whether you find this particular device effective or distracting (or both?), it’s a fluid introduction. (See also Kahneman’s book, below).
11. Chinn, Menzie D. and Jeffrey A. Frieden. Lost Decades: The Making of America's Debt Crisis and the Long Recovery. WW Norton & Co Inc., 2011.
Debt?? We’re in debt??? Who knew? Well, we all know it, but why have we run up such a debt in (relative to World Wars) peacetime? Here’s a scholarly but well‐written overview of the problem, its sources (often misunderstood!) and some solutions.
10. Cowen, Tyler. The Great Stagnation: How America Ate All the Low‐Hanging Fruit of Modern History, Got Sick, and Will (Eventually) Get Better. Amazon, 2011.
An interesting short monograph on the economy and its future. Also of interest, an early example of a book published electronically (though now after its success, it’s also available in a paper version).
9. Eichengreen, Barry J. Exorbitant Privilege: The Rise and Fall of the Dollar and the Future of the International Monetary System. Oxford University Press, 2011.
The U.S. has a number of strengths; one of those is that the dollar happens to be the world’s reserve currency. Will it be so indefinitely? I remember this was a hot issue during my student days in the 70s. It’s back. Eichengreen is perhaps our leading scholar of international monetary history.
8. French, K. R., M. N. Baily, et al. The Squam Lake Report: Fixing the Financial System. Princeton University Press, 2010.
Gives lie to the canard that economists can never agree on anything. Fifteen top financial scholars, of varying political and academic backgrounds, provide a remarkably sharp and concise set of recommendations for fixing our financial system.
7. Glaeser, Edward. Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier. Penguin, 2011.
A fine overview of the place of cities in the economy and society, well‐written by Harvard’s top urban economist. A few glitches – e.g. his data on densities in some developing country cities is off the mark – but I think he gets all the big stuff right. And it’s a much better read than your typical urban economics textbook.
6. Haskins, Ron and Isabel Sawhill. Creating an Opportunity Society. Washington, D.C., Brookings Institution, 2009.
Everyone knows that income inequality has been rising in the U.S., but until I read the literature surveyed and the data presented in this book, I was unaware just how much our vaunted individual economic mobility had eroded. By some meaningful measures the U.S. is now less mobile than many European countries (something that rarely makes the news). Haskins and Sawhill give a careful reading of the evidence, and some very sensible prescriptions to help the U.S. get its mobility mojo back.
5. Kahneman, Daniel. Thinking, Fast and Slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011.
Models of rational choice are the bread and butter of economists, myself included. But not even I walk down the supermarket aisle plugging everything into my personal translog utility function. Psychologist Kahneman won a Nobel Prize for his work bringing psychology into the study of economics (“behavioral economics”). This is a very readable introduction to how the brain goes back and forth between intuitive thinking (“System 1” or “fast thinking”) and more analytic, rational thinking (“System 2,” “slow thinking”). We need both. The book Malcolm Gladwell probably meant to write when he wrote Blink.
4. Malpezzi, Stephen. A Primer on Real Estate and the Aggregate Economy: Know Your Macro Indicators. James A. Graaskamp Center for Real Estate. 2011.
OK, a little self-promotion here. But I think it’s a very handy and practical introduction to tracking the U.S. economy’s basic macro data.
3. Mann, Thomas E. and Norman J. Ornstein. It's Even Worse than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided with the New Politics of Extremism. Basic Books, 2012.
You’ve figured out by now that solving our deficit problems, financial crises, and many other issues are not going so well, more because of politics than because we don’t know what to do. Mann and Ornstein have revised and extended their 2008 book The Broken Branch to document how we arrived at this point. Especially controversial because, while giving plenty of “credit” to the Democrats, they claim that the Republicans are much more responsible for the current environment; and this from Ornstein, a well‐known conservative scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. (Other recent books, including Tom Coburn’s Debt Bomb, spread the blame around more evenly). Whether in the end you share Mann and Ornstein’s views or not, you’ll learn from the detailed discussion of the details behind our political impasses. A good sifting‐and‐winnowing candidate.
2. U.S. Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report: Final Report of the National Commission on the Causes of the Financial and Economic Crisis in the United States, U.S. Government Printing Office, 2011.
Three reports in one – the majority report and two minority reports. Well written, lots of details, and – free! At least the pdf version.
1. Of course, the Wisconsin Real Estate Viewpoint! Read it. Know it. Live it.
For previous other recommendations from Steve's Reading for Life list, click here.
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