This class is the most reasonable Econ class at UCLA. It’s best quality is just the fact that the material you are taught actually reflects what you are tested on. If you understand the homework and the practice exams you will be fine. I wish this wasn’t such a positive but unfortunately in this department that really makes a class stand out. Beyond that the material itself is less useless than any other Econ class I have taken. Some of the concepts are quite interesting at a high level. Lu does make an effort to go into the psychology and studies behind different phenomenon but this being a UCLA Econ class most of it will be pointless and functionally useless math models that impart no understanding. I can’t really blame Professor Lu for this and I do appreciate he tries to bring in actual real-world data. Now the worst thing about this class: he CONSTANTLY posted lectures late. I’m talking 3 days late sometimes. If you like to do your lectures the day they are released this is going to really irritate you. I find it completely unprofessional. I don’t want to hear about how he is busy or has stuff going on. So do we. We don’t get to turn stuff in late. Ever. So I expect the same from those who enforce those mandates. The only saving grace was the fact the lectures were often short and as I said the material was very fair. This class is probably a total 7/10 but a UCLA 12/10 so I would absolutely take it again.

Great professor and interesting class! He made his lectures very interactive and encouraged class participation. There is no textbook, which I actually liked; the class was all PowerPoint-based but it is important to go to class because at the end of some slides, there are questions about the different models that the Professor answers during class. He's a great resource for students who want more information about working in investment banking and he's always willing to make time for his students. Super chill and nice professor! I wouldn't say this is an EASY A class; study, keep up with the different slides, form study groups, do well on the problem sets, go to office hours, and you will do fine. Highly recommend!

Jay was an engaging professor and straight forward, however when doing the problem sets and practice midterms/finals, the short answers were difficult to do based on only his lecture slides which did not provide as in depth detail on how to do the problems as the problem sets needed. Lecture is helpful to attend, but there's no need to worry if you miss a few. I probably could've gotten a higher grade if I put more effort into the class. I would recommend this as an elective.

This is a very interesting and engaging class. There was no textbook - everything was based off of lecture slides and there are 2 problem sets, 1 midterm, and 1 final.
Some people say that problem sets are not clear. If you just go to lecture and listen once then no, it won't be clear. But if you take notes, actually review the lesson and make sure you understand every aspect and how they connect it is extremely straight forward.
His midterm questions are exactly like the problem set. The only tricky part is the multiple choice, but if you really understand the material, the questions are completely fair and reasonable.

This class takes up very little time and is great!

one of the more interesting classes in the department

Interesting and chill class. 1 midterm, 1 final, 2 problem sets. No discussion section. The professor is a nice guy and helpful. The content is interesting and relatively easy.

Definitely recommend this class as an econ elective! Interesting material that relates to real life (procrastination, gambling, saving for retirement, investing in stocks/bonds) and the math behind most of the material is not difficult. I would say that the one frustrating thing was that there weren't a lot of materials provided to practice for the exams. I ended up having to look on Course Hero to find more practice because the exams required much more analytical thinking and math than any of the examples covered in lecture. Definitely try to do well on the problem sets because they are a big part of your grade. I went to every lecture, but he doesn't elaborate a lot on his slides so I think you could get away with not going. It's helpful to take advantage of the class Piazza board too if you have any questions and want help from other students or the professor. Everyone did pretty well on the exams so I don't think there ended up being much of a curve.

The professor is alright, no complaints, BUT this class honestly really sucks. It's not interesting and I went in thinking we would learn more about the psychology behind economics but instead, it's just another math class. This goes for the whole Econ department as a whole, all ECON classes but history ones are all math--it sucks.

Loving this class. Lectures were relatively shorter than the other econ classes and the material is pretty interesting and easy to follow. There are two problem sets and are easy to complete. The midterm is very easy as well and we have a average of 61 out of 65. The final is a bit challenging :< btw. Highly recommend.

Jay is one of the most engaging professors in the Econ department and gives very good lectures. More than every other professor I had, he liked to stop and ask questions throughout every lecture to clarify concepts and motivate students to think. Class attendance was very high even though slides were posted online. The problem sets and exams were decently challenging (not easy, not hard). And the examples he gave were actually relevant to real life (ie. procrastination, investment, dating).

Behavioral Economics is a relatively "new" subject that merges classical economics with psychology. Jay did a great job structuring the main themes so that every theme was covered with the following format: 1) what does classical economics say? 2) why classical economics sucks, and 3) how is behavioral economics better? It's really easy to follow along, but you had to spend some time digesting the concepts. The math is relatively simple (algebra and basic differentiation) but the concepts could get dense so make sure you figure out the precise relationship between different ideas.