Professor
Moritz Meyer-ter-Vehn
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Most Helpful Review
He has a slight German accent and often times he makes everything sound more complicated than it actually is. You need to do four homework assignments for this class and they are extremely challenging. Since there is not much material to study for this class (his lecture notes and homework are everything you have), you need to know everything backward and forward. Even then, the problems on homework will be totally unexpected and unpredictable. I felt like I kept missing some stuff in class because not much in homework assignments and on the final reflect what he taught in class. I guess you just need to be smart to do well in this class. Like the other person said, the midterm was so easy that 90 was the average score.
He has a slight German accent and often times he makes everything sound more complicated than it actually is. You need to do four homework assignments for this class and they are extremely challenging. Since there is not much material to study for this class (his lecture notes and homework are everything you have), you need to know everything backward and forward. Even then, the problems on homework will be totally unexpected and unpredictable. I felt like I kept missing some stuff in class because not much in homework assignments and on the final reflect what he taught in class. I guess you just need to be smart to do well in this class. Like the other person said, the midterm was so easy that 90 was the average score.
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2022 - This class has definitely been one of the most interesting econ classes I've taken so far at UCLA, and I learned a lot from it. I thought there was a good balance between the theoretical models as well as their applications, which was very nice, especially through the case studies with guest speakers. Your grade is based off of 3 homework assignments, 3 of 6 case study assignments, participation in the case studies, and the final (which is worth 50%). Content wise, there was definitely a lot of theoretical models that were covered early on within the first 5-6 weeks. Make sure to know those concepts really well and review them in discussion (go to Jake's discussions). I did think that Moritz wasn't a great lecturer and he wasn't always clear when explaining some models in lecture; I was fairly confused about that material until Week 7 or so. But going to discussions, solving questions from past finals, and doing the homework should clear that up. The homework assignments are very challenging, but he did emphasize that the exams would be much easier. The case studies were also fairly interesting and were pretty relevant to the lecture material, which was great. Some of the speakers were pretty awesome (especially once we switched back to in-person), but others weren't the best. The final wasn't the easiest (in my opinion, some of his past finals were way easier), but they were definitely doable with a little bit of reasoning and thought. The case study question on the final is practically a free 50 points out of 100. Make sure to repeatedly practice all the past finals, as they provide great practice for the exam. All in all , I do think this class was very well structured and you do get to learn a lot of interesting content in formal and applied setting, while being sufficiently challenged. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone interested in the topic.
Winter 2022 - This class has definitely been one of the most interesting econ classes I've taken so far at UCLA, and I learned a lot from it. I thought there was a good balance between the theoretical models as well as their applications, which was very nice, especially through the case studies with guest speakers. Your grade is based off of 3 homework assignments, 3 of 6 case study assignments, participation in the case studies, and the final (which is worth 50%). Content wise, there was definitely a lot of theoretical models that were covered early on within the first 5-6 weeks. Make sure to know those concepts really well and review them in discussion (go to Jake's discussions). I did think that Moritz wasn't a great lecturer and he wasn't always clear when explaining some models in lecture; I was fairly confused about that material until Week 7 or so. But going to discussions, solving questions from past finals, and doing the homework should clear that up. The homework assignments are very challenging, but he did emphasize that the exams would be much easier. The case studies were also fairly interesting and were pretty relevant to the lecture material, which was great. Some of the speakers were pretty awesome (especially once we switched back to in-person), but others weren't the best. The final wasn't the easiest (in my opinion, some of his past finals were way easier), but they were definitely doable with a little bit of reasoning and thought. The case study question on the final is practically a free 50 points out of 100. Make sure to repeatedly practice all the past finals, as they provide great practice for the exam. All in all , I do think this class was very well structured and you do get to learn a lot of interesting content in formal and applied setting, while being sufficiently challenged. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone interested in the topic.
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