Sound Economics

Procrastination: it doesn’t seem very efficient. As I procrastinated writing this blog post, along with all of my other assignments in the home stretch of my last semester, I thought about how much I would regret my past decisions of not working in the near future. In behavioral economics, these decisions are posed as problems of “intertemporal choice.” There is a distinction between the decisions we make in the present and those we foresee in the future. One article delves into this issue, which the author calls “The Seductive-Now Moment.” People would rather have instant gratification and devalue both the Continue reading Why Would I Do it Now When I Could Do it Later?→

Recently, I heard the argument that the best way for Universities to show respect for all fields of study, and show that they are of equal importance is to pay all professors the same wage. This caused me to think about what economics had to say about this idea. Given that there is a certain amount that the private sector will pay for individuals with a PhD and that this phenomenon influences what Universities will pay for PhD-holding individuals, it makes sense that there exists a market for professors. This market has different demand for different doctorates e.g. a professor Continue reading The Market of Professors and Department Importance→

For any fan of Golf, or greatness, this weekends Masters was an incredible experience. Unfortunately for the entire Washington D III Men and Women golf conference, we were too busy getting rained on at our fall classic to tune in. Hopefully we were the only ones that were disrespectful enough to miss what was Tiger Woods incredible victory at Augusta National, adding a 5th green jacket to his coveted wardrobe. His last Masters victory was in 2005, and he hasn’t played in the Masters since 2015. Some would call his triumph historic, and the others would be simply wrong. There Continue reading Eldrick Tont “Tiger” Woods is Back.→

Due to its expansion over the past years, the city of Seattle decided to construct the Denny substation, which will provide power to South Lake Union and Denny Triangle. Seattle began budgeting for the substation in 2003, when then-mayor Greg Nickels and billionaire Paul Allen revealed a proposal to turn South Lake Union into a biotech center. According to Seattle Times, the Denny will supply power to Amazon, Facebook, and Google, and additionally back up the current network. Although the new substation reflects a growth in Seattle’s tech industry, it still imposes an economic burden on the city. It cost Continue reading New Seattle substation powers tech industry→

(Art Credit in Citations) Last Summer I worked at a local movie theater and let me tell you, we hated MoviePass. Sure, it brought in revenue, but it was a lot more hassle than standard ticket sales. MoviePass is a movie subscription service and app that burst into prominence in late 2017 by offering essentially unlimited movies (one a day) at a price of $9.95/month that attracted 150,000 subscribers in two days after its announcement. By the end of the year there would over 1,000,000. And in April it had ballooned to 3,000,000. MoviePass became able to offer this deal Continue reading A Front-Row Seat to Chaos: The Story of MoviePass→

The issue of the gender pay gap persists in many national conversations regarding women’s rights. April 2nd, 2019 was recognized as “Equal Pay Day.” This date symbolized how far into this year women had to work to earn what men earned last year. In 2018, Governor Inslee of Washington State signed into law the Equal Pay Opportunity Act whereby “employees are legally required to receive equal pay and career advancement opportunities, regardless of gender.” The acceptance of the gender pay gap is not without contention. A recent study conducted by SurveyMonkey finds that “46 percent of men and 30 percent of Continue reading Equal Pay Laws→

Video streaming has surpassed traditional TV in media consumption as shown by the wild success of Netflix. The only problem with being such a successful company in a relatively new industry is the massive number of other firms who want in on the profits. Since Netflix first transitioned from a DVD mailing company to the streaming giant they are today, many firms have rolled out their own competing streaming services. Some of the most notable are Amazon video and Hulu but now, even more companies are working to enter the industry. Apple, T-Mobile, Comcast, and Disney will all be launching Continue reading Disney and Chill?→

How many utils do you get from making a joke that gets the whole room laughing? Thinking about the value of a joke helped me find some interesting articles around the web. The economics of jokes is an interesting market. This planet money episode talks about the market for jokes, and the intellectual property challenges that the internet brings up. https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2019/04/06/710404524/episode-904-joke-theft  The planet money episode talks about joke theft interviewing Christopher Sprigman who wrote: “There’s No Free Laugh (Anymore): The Emergence of Intellectual Property Norms and the Transformation of Stand-Up Comedy”. This episode talks about how copywriting is very expensive Continue reading The economics of Jokes→