Friday, December 15, 2006

'Real' and 'Fake' Marshall Jevons?

Over at Marginal Revolution, there have been some speculation going about the author(s) of this blog. Let me assure our readers that the author(s) of this blog are NOT the Marshall Jevons of William Breit and Kenneth G. Elzinga. According to Wikipedia their Marshall Jevons have a fictitious biography;

Marshall Jevons is the President of UtilMax, Inc., an international consulting firm headquartered in New York City. A former Rhodes Scholar, he holds advanced degrees in economics, biochemistry, and oceanography. Mr. Jevons is an Olympic medal holder in kayaking whose hobbies now include rocketry and the futures market in cocoa beans. He is a native of Virginia but prefers to call 'home' the Queen Elizabeth 2. This is Marshall Jevons' first novel.


Once again, the author(s) of this blog have not worked for UtilMax, Inc. and do not have any relationship with Marshall Jevons of William Breit and Kenneth G. Elzinga. I apologize to the two professors for the misunderstanding.

Also of interest the following heated exchange at the original MR post;

Marshall Jevons is Ken Elzinga. He makes all his students buy a really crappy detective book he wrote under that pseudonym. He is a decent lecturer for an intro class, but his methods of evaluation were horrible. He makes the exam multiple choice, and then within each of the 5 choices are 5 subtly different combinations. It is like a chinese box and does a very poor job of distinguishing students. Finally since everything is on a curve, people who understand the material just as well as the next person do significantly better or worse on their final grade. His exams were a Bayesian Heresy, and frankly, given what I have read of Greg Mankiw's blog, Elzinga could not hold a candle to him, yet he is one of the best regarded professors at UVA.

Secondly, he ended up recruiting a good friend's sister into his Christian Fundamentalist cult which greatly set her back in life and I will never forgive him for that.


And a reply by Paul W;

No, the blog is not by either professor of the Marshall Jevons pseudonym. I am 100% sure (from a very reliable witness) that they are now looking into possible copyright infringement.

To "Pace": It sounds like someone is angry that they earned a poor grade on the Econ 201 final. I thought that Elzinga was a excellent professor. In any case, most multiple choice exams are similar to the "Chinese box" which you describe; being able to discern the differences (albeit often subtle differences) between the possible answers is part of distinguishing which students truly understand the subject, and which do not. Though the final was a large part of the grade, the other tests did not involve multiple choice, offering plenty of room to improve your grade outside the final.

As for the subject of your good friend's sister - being "set back in life" is a relatively subjective statement. I would be willing to wager that she is now happier, and that the Christian church which she joined is far from a "cult." I believe that there is more to existence than possessions and life on earth, and I will pray for you.
For Discussion (for law bloggers); So who's the 'real' Marshall Jevons?- President of the UtilMax?

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