Sound Economics

Economic models assume consumers choose the bundle of goods that will maximize their utility. It’s no secret that this assumption holds very little water –that consumers fail to make utility maximizing choices in their day to day lives– and it can be interesting to look at examples of these failures of decision making. One interesting example of consumers incorrectly maximizing their utility is lemming decision making. Lemming decision making is essentially what happens when someone does something incorrectly just because everyone else is also doing that thing incorrectly, without actually evaluating the various outcomes and making a real decision about Continue reading Do you Stand or Walk on an Escalator? Lemming Decision Making→

In this edition of Thesis Corner, I sat down with Julia Ratcliff to discuss her investigation into the connections of blockchain technology and multi-sided platform theory. What was your thesis project about? Essentially my project was about blockchain and multi-sided platform theory. I was trying to see if technologies could essentially replace these businesses that act as intermediaries between two different groups of people. What were your conclusions? Technically I did a theory based paper, I didn’t do an econometrics paper, but really it was more on the argumentative side because I was trying to work multi-sided platform price theory Continue reading Thesis Corner: Julia Ratcliff→

Driving through Seattle is a challenge. Seattle is one of, if not the most, traffic congested cities in the state. In an attempt to alleviate some of the traffic, the city of Seattle may implement congestion pricing: a toll that drivers must pay to use popular routes during peak hours. If successful, the tax will reduce use of the roads during those hours, and the revenue collected will fund transportation projects. Cities such as New York, London, Singapore, and Stockholm have already used congestion pricing. While New York’s tax is fairly new, the system worked well in the other cities. Continue reading Seattle Considers Congestion Pricing→

Looking to pick up a book for some fun econ reading? I would highly recommend Paul Oyer’s Everything I Ever Needed to Know About Economics I Learned From Online Dating. This book brings some of the concepts looked at across economics classes and applies them to dating. The book is engaging funny and easy to follow even for a non-economics major. IT is structured by the concept and all concepts have an example of the economics concept in dating and in a separate industry. My favorite two topics covered were cheap talk and network externalities. Cheap talk is the idea Continue reading Swipe Right on Paul Oyer→

I am unashamed to admit that in my single semester employed by UPS Phonathon, the school lost money on me. As I worked my hardest to get pledges, very few people were interested in allowing me to facilitate their donation to the university. After my semester, the hourly wages I accrued vastly exceeded the donations I was able to facilitate. For those who are unfamiliar, the phonathon is an on-campus employment opportunity led predominately by students. The phonathon is responsible for all the calls made to alumni with the request of financial donations. So, if and when the school starts Continue reading The Economics of Phonathon→

I sat down with senior Economics major, Sophie Kornick, to ask her about her thesis.   What did you do your senior thesis on? I examined if there was a correlation between firm size and the gender wage gap.   What did you expect to find? I thought that the gender wage gap would get bigger as the firm’s size got bigger.   What did you actually find? I was surprised to find that as firm size got bigger, the gender wage gap actually got smaller.   How did you get interested in this topic? I was in Andrew Monaco’s Continue reading Learning about Sophie Kornick’s Thesis: Firm Size and the Gender Wage Gap→