Incentives – Sound Economics

The Why Axis: How to get People to Give More

Posted on May 11, 2016 by Alex Shaw — 1 Comment ↓

In Chapter Nine of the The Why Axis, Uri Gneezy and John List examined some of the conventional wisdoms about the techniques used in charity fund raising to try to determine if they really work at all, as well as which work better than others. What are the motivations for people to give to charity? How might these motivations be exploited to get people to donate more? The authors noted that in their travels, that most charities rely on the assumptions and conventional wisdoms of the previous decision makers, “rather than verifiable data.” One of the conventional wisdoms John came Continue reading The Why Axis: How to get People to Give More→

The Why Axis: Innovation is Key

Posted on May 5, 2016 by Cole Driscoll — No Comments ↓

Chapter 10 of the Why Axis discusses the reason behind many people’s willingness to give to nonprofits and how this changes the way these nonprofits run their companies. The chapter starts off by telling of a child who was the star of a 2008 Academy Award winning documentary entitled “Smile Pinki.” This child from India, Pinki Sonkar was born with a cleft lip and faced many hardships early in her life because the way people treated her. But one day she was introduced to a doctor employed by a nonprofit who agreed to preform surgery to rid of this problem. Continue reading The Why Axis: Innovation is Key→

The Why Axis: Bribing People and Competition

Posted on March 20, 2016 by Nicky Smit — No Comments ↓

Here’s a delightful discussion of the main points in the first two chapters. Next Monday Geremia will be taking you for a ride along chapters 3 and 4, so please read along! Chapter one They dive right into the juicy stuff. What incentivizes people? Why are incentives so tricky? Gneezy and List hammer home the point that monetary incentives don’t always work in your favor. Sometimes, like for poor Rebecca and her daycare, putting a money penalty effectively makes the problem worse. As the authors explained, there’s lots of reasons for this. For starters, she set the penalty at $3 Continue reading The Why Axis: Bribing People and Competition→

The Salary Cap in Sports: Part 1 (Baseball)

Posted on March 4, 2016 by Lukie Crowley — 1 Comment ↓

I think it would be efficient (haha) to introduce myself as a new writer for Sound Economics at the beginning of my blog post. My name is Lukie Crowley, a sophomore economics major and I am thrilled to start writing for Sound Economics. My first post will be part one of a three part series about the salary cap in baseball, football and basketball. I will be discussing about how it differs in each sport and the incentive to change it or stay stagnant in said sports. In the rare major sport that does not have a salary cap (while Continue reading The Salary Cap in Sports: Part 1 (Baseball)→