Talking Texts

Welcome to episode 3 of the podcast “talking texts”. In this episode “skipping class – Is attendance, the solution for good grades?”, Jimmy and Luisa explain the main results of the scientific paper “Skipping class in college and exam performance: Evidence from a regression discontinuity classroom” and discuss their own experiences with skipping.

00:00 Introduction

00:45 Opener for episode

01:50 Study design and facts

04:22 Results

05:40 Conclusion and own experiences

08:01 Closing words

09:45 Outro

Celina Depiereux

Christopher Klemmer

Dobkin, C., Gil, R., & Marion, J. (2010). Skipping class in college and exam performance: Evidence from a regression discontinuity classroom experiment. Economics of Education Review, 29(4), 566-575. link

Link to website https://talkingtexts.de/episode-3/

Midterms – important exams in the middle of an academic year

Attendance rate – percentage of how many students actually visited the class in average.

Mandatory – a class is mandatory when you have to attend all the classes dates of a course.

Regression discontinuity – scientific tool to compare pretest and posttest performance after implementing a specific policy

Cover art: Anna Mahendra

Music Bela Bartok, Irene Damert, Felix Spieß

Welcome to episode 3 of the podcast “talking texts”. In this episode “skipping class – Is attendance, the solution for good grades?”, Jimmy and Luisa explain the main results of the scientific paper “Skipping class in college and exam performance: Evidence from a regression discontinuity classroom” and discuss their own experiences with skipping.

00:00 Introduction

00:45 Opener for episode

01:50 Study design and facts

04:22 Results

05:40 Conclusion and own experiences

08:01 Closing words

09:45 Outro

Celina Depiereux

Christopher Klemmer

Dobkin, C., Gil, R., & Marion, J. (2010). Skipping class in college and exam performance: Evidence from a regression discontinuity classroom experiment. Economics of Education Review, 29(4), 566-575. link

Link to website http://talkingtexts.de/episode-3/

Midterms – important exams in the middle of an academic year

Attendance rate – percentage of how many students actually visited the class in average.

Mandatory – a class is mandatory when you have to attend all the classes dates of a course.

Regression discontinuity – scientific tool to compare pretest and posttest performance after implementing a specific policy

Cover art: Anna Mahendra

Music Bela Bartok, Irene Damert, Felix Spieß

This is the podcast Talking Texts: the podcast about important texts from your degree program. In episode 2 – Is abortion a crime? the hosts Marzia and Marlow will talk about the text “Abortion regimes of the OECD countries and their determining factors by comparison” by Edith Gindulis. This text deals with the issue of abortion and its criminalization. It also discusses which countries have questionable abortion rights.

00:01 introduction

01:24 opener

01:26 topic of the text

02:45 statistical background

05:28 conclusion

06:58 discussion

10:37 outro

Gindulis, Edith. Die Abtreibungsregime der OECD-Länder und ihre Bestimmungsfaktoren im Vergleich. Österreichische Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft, 2002, 31. Jg., Nr. 3, S. 315-336.

Link to the text: https://www.ssoar.info/ssoar/handle/document/6004

Link to website https://talkingtexts.de/episode-2/

Cover art: Anna Mahendra

Music: Felix Spieß

In today's episode of Talking Texts, the hosts Christoph and Rick explain the economic use of Nudging in everyday live and how the number of organ donations can be increased using nudging techniques. While giving several examples of how Nudging can affect any of us, their episode is based on the award-winning bestseller book: “Nudge: Improving-Decisions-Health-Happiness” from Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein.

00:00 Opener

00:51 Intro

01:08 What is Nudging? Examples.

05:32 Nudging and Organ Donation

10:18 Discussion                                         

16:00 Outro   

Verhaltensökonomik is behavioural economics in English

Bundeszentrale für gesundheitliche Aufklärung (BZgA). This translates as federal center for health education. The task of this centre is to inform citizens about health and important measurements. For more information go to their webpage.

"REWE" is the name of a supermarket-chain in Germany. REWE is short for "Revisionsverband der Westkauf-Genossenschaften" (Audit union for Westkauf-Cooperatives).

German Version: Nudge. Wie man kluge Entscheidungen anstößt (übersetzt von Christoph Bausum). Econ, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-430-20081-3

Thaler, R. H., & Sunstein, C. R.. Nudge: Improving decisions about health, wealth, and happiness. Penguin. 2009.

Link to website https://talkingtexts.de/episode-1/

Link to BZgA https://www.bzga.de/home/bzga/

Cover art: Anna Mahendra

Music Bela Bartok, Irene Damert, Felix Spieß

This episode of talking texts introduces the hosts and single episodes of the first season. We will talk about the purpose and aim of the podcast as well as how it can help you with difficult texts from your degree program.

Here is the link to the webpage: https://talkingtexts.de

You’ll find the single episodes by clicking on the respective links:

Ep. 0 https://talkingtexts.de/episode-0/

Ep. 1 https://talkingtexts.de/episode-1/

Ep. 2 https://talkingtexts.de/episode-2/

Ep. 3 https://talkingtexts.de/episode-3/

Ep. 4 https://talkingtexts.de/episode-4/