First, you'll need to choose a topic for your final essay, which will be at least 1,000 words in length. This is the topic you will use to create your outline in Week 2 and the essay in Week 3. Choose ONE of the topics below. Option 1: The American Dream lecture in Week 1 points out that Poor Richard’s Almanac was an annual publication that included calendar lists, home recipes, weather forecasts etc. What made Franklin’s almanac unlike other almanacs was the inclusion of Franklin’s witty parables and humorous writings.  Franklin proposes in “The Way to Wealth” that anyone who works hard, avoids debt, and works toward attaining a virtuous character can be successful and ultimately wealthy—that the American Dream is accessible to all. Watch either The Color Purple or The Great Gatsby (locate the films using Netflix, Amazon, or your local library) and argue why or why not Franklin’s assertions are correct. Provide examples from the film and your own explanations to support your assertions.  Your will have two choices for your thesis statement: As is evident in the film The Color Purple (or The Great Gatsby), Franklin’s assertion that the American Dream is available to all people is incorrect because _________, ___________, and _________ (you will determine three points in support of your thesis, and those will become the topics of your three body paragraphs).  As is evident in the film The Color Purple (or The Great Gatsby), Franklin’s assertion that the American Dream is available to all people is correct because _________, ___________, and _________ (you will determine three points in support of your thesis, and those will become the topics of your three body paragraphs). Option 2:   Write a comparison or contrast essay about two of the corresponding characters in the table below. You will choose three of the points of comparison from the pool below as your points of comparison or contrast. Keep in mind that the purpose of a comparison or contrast essay is to reveal something meaningful about the characters and their relationships to the text.    You will be using a point-by-point style of comparison, and you will have two choices for your thesis statement:   While some differences between __________ and __________ (names of characters in the pairing you chose) are evident, they are similar in the aspects of __________, __________, and __________ (you will determine three points of comparison from the pool, and those will become the topics of your three body paragraphs).   While some similarities between  __________ and __________ (names of characters in the pairing you chose) are evident, they are different in the aspects of __________, __________, and __________ (you will determine three points of comparison from the pool, and those will become the topics of your three body paragraphs). Choose one of the following pairings: Choose three of the following points of comparison: 1. Rip Van Winkle and Anton Rosicky A. Motivation 2. Dame Van ...

1. First, you'll need to choose a topic for your final essay, which
will be at least 1,000 words in length. This is the topic you will
use to create your outline in Week 2 and the essay in Week 3.
Choose ONE of the topics below.
Option 1:
The American Dream lecture in Week 1 points out that Poor
Richard’s Almanac was an annual publication that included
calendar lists, home recipes, weather forecasts etc. What made
Franklin’s almanac unlike other almanacs was the inclusion of
Franklin’s witty parables and humorous writings. Franklin
proposes in “The Way to Wealth” that anyone who works hard,
avoids debt, and works toward attaining a virtuous character can
be successful and ultimately wealthy—that the American Dream
is accessible to all.
Watch either The Color Purple or The Great Gatsby (locate the
films using Netflix, Amazon, or your local library) and argue
why or why not Franklin’s assertions are correct. Provide
examples from the film and your own explanations to support
your assertions.
Your will have two choices for your thesis statement:
As is evident in the film The Color Purple (or The Great
Gatsby), Franklin’s assertion that the American Dream is
available to all people is incorrect because _________,
___________, and _________ (you will determine three points
in support of your thesis, and those will become the topics of
your three body paragraphs).
As is evident in the film The Color Purple (or The Great
Gatsby), Franklin’s assertion that the American Dream is
available to all people is correct because _________,
___________, and _________ (you will determine three points
in support of your thesis, and those will become the topics of
your three body paragraphs).

2. Option 2:
Write a comparison or contrast essay about two of the
corresponding characters in the table below. You will choose
three of the points of comparison from the pool below as your
points of comparison or contrast. Keep in mind that the purpose
of a comparison or contrast essay is to reveal something
meaningful about the characters and their relationships to the
text.
You will be using a point-by-point style of comparison, and you
will have two choices for your thesis statement:
While some differences between __________ and __________
(names of characters in the pairing you chose) are evident, they
are similar in the aspects of __________, __________, and
__________ (you will determine three points of comparison
from the pool, and those will become the topics of your three
body paragraphs).
While some similarities between __________ and __________
(names of characters in the pairing you chose) are evident, they
are different in the aspects of __________, __________, and
__________ (you will determine three points of comparison
from the pool, and those will become the topics of your three
body paragraphs).
Choose one of the following pairings:
Choose three of the following points of comparison:
1. Rip Van Winkle and Anton Rosicky
A. Motivation
2. Dame Van Winkle and Mrs. Peters
B. Religion
3. Desiree Aubigny and Faith Brown
C. Generosity
4. Young Goodman Brown and Armand Aubigny
D Trustworthiness
5. Dame Van Winkle and Mrs. Hale
E. Independence/Dependence

3. F. Communication skills
G. Level of intelligence
H. Sense of adventure
I. Relationships with others
J. Conflicts/trials faced
K. Journeys, either physical or symbolic
For example, you might choose pairing #3 (Desiree Aubigny
and Faith Brown) and points C, I, and B (generosity,
relationship with others, and religion) as your points of
comparison.
Now that you have selected a topic and thought about your
thesis statement, the next step is writing an outline to help you
plan the final essay. Download and complete the appropriate
outline for the topic you have selected.
SEE FILES ATTACHED…
Assignment 2:
The Median Voter Model
1 Introduction
Microeconomics tools are not only used to explain typically
economic phenomena, like

4. wages, interest rates, stock prices, marketing strategies, and so
on. They are also used
to explain politics. Nowadays, political economics is an
important field in social sciences.
In this paper, we describe probably the best known political-
economic model, the median
voter model. It was developed by Downs (1957),1 who was
heavily inspired by Hotelling
(1929).2 The Hotelling model is discussed in Chapter 14 of
Frank and Cartwright (2016).3
The median voter model describes the consequences of electoral
competition for policy
outcomes. The model is an economic model in the sense that
each actor - in the present
model, each party and each voter - makes decisions on the basis
of cost-benefit analyses.
As in any economic model, assumptions are made about each
actor’s objective function.
We now describe the model.
2 The Model
Two parties, party L and party R, run for office. The election
revolves around policy x,
say government spending. Before the election, each party

5. chooses a platform. We denote
by xaL the platform chosen by party L, and by x
a
R the platform chosen by party R. After
the election, the platform of the party that has won the election
is implemented. So,
parties always do what they have promised.
Parties are assumed to care only about winning the election. The
utility function of
party P ∈ {L, R} can therefore be represented by
UP = IP
1Downs, A., 1957, An Economic Theory of Democracy, New
York Harper.
2Hotelling, H., 1929, Stability in Competition, Economic
Journal, 39, 41-57.
3Frank, R. and E. Cartwright, 2016, Microeconomics and
Behaviour, 2nd European Edition, McGraw-
Hill Education.
1
where IP = 1 if party P has won the election, and IP = 0 if party
P has lost it.
The volting population is made of an infinite number of voters.
Each voter either votes

6. for party L or for party R. There is no abstention. Let vi reflects
voter i’s vote decision.
It denotes the probability with which i votes for party L. Thus,
vi = 1, means that i
votes with probability one for party L, and vi = 0 means that i
votes with probability
one for party R. Voters have different preferences over
government spending. Let
Ui (x) = −(x−xi)
2
(1)
describe voter i’s preferences about x. In Equation (1), xi
denotes the most preferred
value of x from voter i’s perspective. It is called voter i’s bliss
point. Clearly, if i could
choose x, he would choose x = xi. This value of x maximizes Ui
(x). The problem is that
voters have different bliss points. For example, John wants the
government to spend more
than Ann, xJohn = 70 > xAnn = 40. Figure 1 depicts their utility
functions. The dashed
Figure 1: Utility function of Ann and John
line depicts Ann’s utility function, while the solid line depicts

7. John’s utility function.
Figure 1 illustrates that the closer is x to i’s bliss point, the
higher is i’s utility.
Question 1: Are John and Ann risk-averse or risk-loving?
As mentioned above, the electorate consists of an infinite
number of citizens. Some
of these citizens have bliss points that are even lower than that
of Ann. Some have bliss
points higher than that of John. Finally, some have bliss points
between xAnn and xJohn.
For simplicity, we initially assume that citizens’ bliss points are
uniformly distributed on
2
the interval [20, 110], meaning that no citizen wants public
spending to be lower than 20,
no citizen wants public spending to be higher than 110, and the
same number of citizens
wants x to be equal to y as to z, provided that 20 ≤ y ≤ 110 and
20 ≤ z ≤ 110.
The timing of the model is as follows. First, parties
simultaneously offer platforms,
xaL and x
a

8. R. Next, after having observed x
a
L and x
a
R, voters simultaneously maker their
vote decisions. Finally, the party that obtains the majority of
votes wins the election. Its
platform is implemented.
3 Solving the Model
The model is solved by backward induction. We first determine
the optimal decision of
each voter i. Each voter observes xaL and x
a
R. Suppose that x
a
R ≥ x
a
L. The analysis
for xaR ≤ x
a
L is identical. To determine voter i’s optimal strategy, it is
convenient to
distinguish four cases.
1. xi > x

9. a
R > x
a
L . Then,
−(xaR −xi)
2
> −(xaL −xi)
2
,
implying that it is a dominant strategy for voter i to vote for
party R. The intuition
is straightforward. xi > x
a
R > x
a
L means that both parties propose to spend less
than voter i wants the government to spend. As a result, voter i
prefers the platform
that leads to the highest amount of spending, vi = 0.
2. xi < x
a
L < x
a
R . Then,
−(xaL −xi)

10. 2
> −(xaR −xi)
2
,
implying that it is a dominant strategy for voter i to vote for
party L, vi = 1 This
case is the opposite of the first one.
3. xaR > xi > x
a
L. In the third case, voter i faces a dilemma. Party R proposes
to
spend more than he wants, while party L proposes to spend less
than he wants. In
this case voter i votes for party L if
−(xaL −xi)
2
> −(xaR −xi)
2
xi −xaL > x
a
R −xi (2)
3
4. If xaR = x

11. a
L, each voter is indifferent between both parties. We assume
that in this
case each voter casts his ballot for party L with probability one
half, vi =
1
2
The analysis above shows that voter i votes for party L if his
bliss point is closer to
xaL than to x
a
R. This property of voters’ voting strategies has an important
implication.
Consider voter i and voter j. Suppose that xi > xj, x
a
R > x
a
L, and that voter j votes for
party R. Then, voter i also votes for party R. Likewise, if xi <
xj, x
a
R > x
a
L, and voter j
votes for party L, then voter i also votes for party L.
Question 2: Show graphically that if xi < xj, x
a

12. R > x
a
L and vi = 0, then vj = 0.
We have now arrived at one of the main insights of the median
voter model. If in our
model the median voter strictly prefers party L to party R, party
L wins the election.
Analogously, if the median voter strictly prefers party R to
party L, party R wins the
election. Earlier, we have assumed that xi is uniformly
distributed on the interval [20, 110].
Under this assumption, the median voter’s bliss point is xm =
65. Our analysis thus shows
that if xL is closer to 65 than xR, L wins the election.
Otherwise, R wins.
We now turn to the analysis of parties’ platform decisions, xL
and xR. Parties antici-
pate how voters will respond to their platforms. Most
importantly, each party knows that
if it gets the support of the median voter, it will win the
election. As is usual in economic
models, in equilibrium actors do not have an incentive to
deviate. It is now easy to see
that in equilibrium each party chooses a platform that coincides

13. with the median voter’s
bliss point. If not, one party has an incentive to deviate. As an
example, suppose that
xaL = 60 and x
a
R = 80. In this case, party L wins the election. However, by
choosing
xaR ∈ (60, 70) party R can win the election. It therefore has an
incentive to deviate. This
incentive to deviate for one party always exists unless xaL = x
a
R = xm. Hence, the median
voter model predicts that parties choose platforms that coincide
with the median voter’s
bliss point.
4
Your Essay
The median voter model discussed above is based on many
assumptions. For example,
1. Political parties only care about office.
2. The bliss points of voters are uniformly distributed.
In your essay you should first analyze how the outcomes of the

14. median voter model
are affected by the assumption that the bliss points of voters are
uniformly distributed.
To this end, assume instead that the bliss points of voters are
distributed as in Figure 2
below.
0 100
0.0075
0.02
20
Density
x_i
Figure 2: Alternative distribution of voter bliss points
Next, you should show how the outcomes of the median voter
model are affected by
replacing the assumption that political parties only care about
winning the election by the
assumption that political parties are ideological, that is they
care about policy outcomes,
like voters do. Assume that parties have different ideologies.
Assume again that the bliss

15. points of voters are uniformly distributed on [20, 110] and that
parties must implement
what they promise in case they get elected.
5
Creating an Outline for Option 2
Instructions: Write complete sentences to fill in the items
below.
Introduction:
Introduction:
· Establish the topic
· Identify the film you are analyzing
· End with a clear thesis statement
Thesis Statement (fill in the blanks for one of the thesis
statements on the right):
While some differences between (name of character 1) and
(name of character 2) are evident, they are similar in the aspects
of __________, __________, and __________ (you will
determine three points of comparison from the pool, and those
will become the topics of your three body paragraphs).
OR
While some similarities between (name of character 1) and
(name of character 2) are evident, they are different in the
aspects of __________, __________, and __________ (you will
determine three points of comparison from the pool, and those
will become the topics of your three body paragraphs).
Body Paragraphs: This is where you will develop each of the

16. points in your thesis statement.
Body Paragraph 1: Elaborate on the first point in your thesis
statement
Topic Sentence:
Detail 1:
Detail 2:
Detail 3:
Concluding Sentence:
Quote(s) you will use to support this point:
Body Paragraph 2: Elaborate on the second point in your thesis
statement
Topic Sentence:
Detail 1:
Detail 2:
Detail 3:
Concluding Sentence:
Quote(s) you will use to support this point:
Body Paragraph 3: Elaborate on the third point in your thesis
statement
Topic Sentence:
Detail 1:
Detail 2:

17. Detail 3:
Concluding Sentence:
Quote(s) you will use to support this point:
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
Summarize the main points in the body paragraphs and
paraphrase your thesis.
Creating an Outline for Option 1
Instructions: Write complete sentences to fill in the items
below.
Introduction:
Introduction:
· Establish the topic
· Identify the film you are analyzing
· End with a clear thesis statement
Thesis Statement (fill in the blanks on the right):
As is evident in the film The Color Purple (or The Great
Gatsby), Franklin’s assertion that the American Dream is
available to all people is (correct / incorrect) because (point 1),
(point 2), and (point 3) (you will determine three points in
support of your thesis, and those will become the topics of your
three body paragraphs).
Body Paragraphs: This is where you will develop each of the

18. points in your thesis statement.
Body Paragraph 1: Elaborate on the first point in your thesis
statement
Topic Sentence:
Detail 1:
Detail 2:
Detail 3:
Concluding Sentence:
Quote(s) you will use to support this point:
Body Paragraph 2: Elaborate on the second point in your thesis
statement
Topic Sentence:
Detail 1:
Detail 2:
Detail 3:
Concluding Sentence:
Quote(s) you will use to support this point:
Body Paragraph 3: Elaborate on the third point in your thesis
statement
Topic Sentence:
Detail 1:

19. Detail 2:
Detail 3:
Concluding Sentence:
Quote(s) you will use to support this point
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
Summarize the main points in the body paragraphs and
paraphrase your thesis.