Papers and Projects
June 2023: One-shot Economic Mobility via Microsoft Excel
Excel Workbook (shortlink: tiny.cc/mobilityexcel):
Mobility.xlsm (macros won't work in Google sheets so download file, then open in desktop Excel)
2022: Culmination of a project over several years on income inequality with Sang Truong.
Website: barretoh.github.io/GitHubincomevis/
Published Paper: Teaching Income Inequality with Data-Driven Visualization
Working Paper: Visualizing Income Distribution in the United States (2020)
Jan 2022: One-shot Introduction to Inequality, Gini, and Redistribution via Microsoft Excel
CTREE Chicago 2022 Version: OneShotInequalityGiniRedistribution.docx
Excel Workbook (shortlink: tiny.cc/giniexcel):
Gini.xlsm (macros won't work in Google sheets so download file, then open in desktop Excel)
July 2021: Using Excel to Teach Principles of Microeconomics
Working Paper version: https://ideas.repec.org/p/dew/wpaper/2021-01.html
Excel Workbook:
LangtonsAnt.xlsm (macros won't work in Google sheets so download file, then open in desktop Excel)
Aug 2020: A Covid-19 Teaching Example: Pooled Testing with Microsoft Excel
LaTex files for paper (with figures):
Excel Workbook:
May 2019: Rational Addiction with Excel
Word doc of paper presented at 2019 CTREE (AEA) in St. Louis, MO
Excel Workbook: RationalAddiction.xlsm (macros won't work in Google sheets so download file, then open in desktop Excel)
July 2018: Cuban Demography and Economic Consequences
Word doc of paper presented at 2018 ASCE in Miami, FL
Excel Workbook: PopPyrCuba.xlsm (12MB) (macros won't work in Google sheets so download file, then open in desktop Excel)
April 2018: Form 990 Data paper and Excel workbook no longer works because the IRS does not support Form 990 data in AWS.
June 2017: The Role of Distance in College Undermatching (with Lois Miller)
Data: UndermatchFinalData.xlsm (macros won't work in Google sheets so download file, then open in desktop Excel)
Appendix: AppendixSurvey.doc
Submitted and revised journal version:
8 Aug 2017: Let's Put Demography Back into Economics: Population Pyramids in Excel
PopPyr.xlsm (macros won't work in Google sheets so download file, then open in desktop Excel)
Jan 2011: Explaining More Passing as a Rational Response to Decreased Risk
Working paper version of this paper: ExplainingPassing.pdf
Team data set: NFLTeamData19702009.xls
Play-by-play data set: NFLPlayData2005.xls
Aug 2010: Testing Optimization
Summer research with Ryne Weppler. We implement the lifeguard problem in an Excel workbook.
PDF of paper with description and explanation. (forthcoming)
LifeguardGame.xls(macros won't work in Google sheets so download file, then open in desktop Excel)
July 2009: Parrondo's Paradox: the puzzling fact that two losing games can be combined to yield a winning game.
"A MICROSOFT EXCEL VERSION OF PARRONDO’S PARADOX"
Parrando’s paradox is analyzed via Monte Carlo simulation and Markov chains within Microsoft Excel. The properties of individual and mixed games are clearly demonstrated. The accompanying Excel workbook, Parrondo.xls, enables the reader to replicate results, verify claims, and extend the analysis in unforeseen ways.
| Paper | Excel Workbook |
|---|---|
| ParrondoSSRN2.pdf | Parrondo.xls |
June 1995: I wrote the Coase/Pigou paper below, but I never published it after a correspondence with Coase left me completely confused and unsure of my position. My review of Medema's Hesitant Hand (in Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology) reminded me of this episode and since I refer to my Coase/Pigou paper in the review, I decided to make it available here. Please do not quote it without my permission.
Pigou, Coase, and Efficiency Applied to Pennsylvania Coal Mining Law
Work by and with DePauw Students
These are students that I have worked with at DePauw that have used Excel for senior projects and Honor Scholar theses.
2025: Krishna Aryal developed a stock price Excel add-in that downloads data from Yahoo Finance. Download and install using the Add-ins Manager: Download Stock Add-In.xlam
2023: Jack Fitzgerald on deconstructing baseball's WAR statistic: PositionPlayerWARSimulation.xlsm
2021: Sang Truong and I wrote several papers and this one was published: “Teaching Income Inequality with Data-Driven Visualization” The American Economist, (2022), pp 1-16, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/05694345221129022
2017: Lois Miller, Reaching Further: The Role of Distance in College Undermatching (Excel workbook with data: Import 2.xlsm; contact me if you want the original raw data set). Uses MTurk and Qualtrics to survey about college application process and outcomes. Excel used to clean and process data; Stata for analysis.
2012: Aishwarya Subbaraman,Extraction Politics: An Economic Analysis of Rare Earth Elements(zip file with Excel workbooks and paper) Excel implementation of optimal extraction model with functions that solve for optimal extraction.
2012: Paul Hoffman, OrganGame.xls (Excel workbook) Thesis not completed, but this Excel file has implementation (with terse documentation) of Kessler and Roth's "Organ Allocation Policy and the Decision to Donate." It is fully functional and you can run some pretty cool simulations with it.
2011: Ryne Weppler,Testing Optimization: Solving the Lifeguard Problem with Discrete and Continuous Methodologies (Word doc with link to Excel workbook) A behavioral economics application that tests whether people can intuitively solve the Lifeguard Problem. The Excel workbook is amazing -- you play a game and it records how well you did.
2010: Elizabeth Cozzi,An Economic Analysis of Title I of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008(zip file with Excel workbooks and paper) Monte Carlo simulation analysis of insurance risk pooling.
Questions and feedback: hbarreto@depauw.edu
Last Updated: 30 July 2025