2-week summer course in "economic theory and global prioritization": LMK if interested!

Sure. Those particular papers rely on a mathematical trick that only lets you work out how much a society should be willing to pay to avoid proportional losses in consumption. It turns out to be different from what to do in the x-risk case in lots of important ways, and the trick is not generalizable in those ways. But because the papers seem so close to being x-risk-relevant, I know of like half a dozen EA econ students (including me) who have tried extending them at some point before giving up…

I’m aware of at least a few other “common EA econ theorist dead ends” of this sort, and I’ll try making a list, along something written about each of them. When this and the rest of the course material is done, I’ll post it.

Good to know, thanks!

Video recordings are among the "more polished and scalable educational materials" I was thinking might come out of this; i.e. to some extent the course lectures would serve as a trial run for any such videos. That wouldn't be for a year or so, I'm afraid. But if it happens, I'll make sure to get a good attached mike, and if I can't get my hands on one elsewhere I'll keep you in mind. : )

Glad to hear you might be interested!

Thanks for pointing this out. It's tough, because (a) as GrueEmerald notes below, at least some European schools end later, and (b) it will be easier to provide accommodation in Oxford once the Oxford spring term is over (e.g. I was thinking of just renting space in one of the colleges). Once the application form is up*, I might include a When2Meet-type thing so people can put exactly what weeks they expect to be free through the summer.

*If this goes ahead; but there have been a lot of expressions of interest so far, so it probably will!

I think late May is too early for most European students.

Yup, I'll post the syllabus and slides and so on!

I'll also probably record the lectures, but probably not make them available except to the attendees, so they feel more comfortable asking questions. But if a lecture goes well, I might later use it as a template for a more polished/accessible video that is publicly available. (Some of the topics already have good lectures for online as well, though; in those cases I'd probably just link to those.)

Right—the primary audience is people who already have a fair bit of background in economics.

Cool! I was thinking that this course would be a sort of early-stage / first-pass attempt at a curriculum that could eventually generate a textbook (and/or other materials) if it goes well and is repeated a few times, just as so many other textbooks have begun as lecture notes. But if you'd be willing to make something online / easier-to-update sooner, that could be useful. The slides and so on won't be done for quite a while, but I'll send them to you when they are.