Sound Economics

In Econ 244: Gender and the Economy, we have been learning about two particular effects that influence an individual’s decision of how many hours to dedicate to market work: the substitution effect and the income effect. Now, I’m not just bringing this up to tell you about a (super interesting) class that I’m taking, but also because of the recent proposal to increase the threshold salary under which individuals are eligible for overtime pay. Currently, individuals earning $23,700 or less annually are eligible for these additional wages, however the new proposal by the Labor Department would increase that maximum threshold Continue reading Overtime Eligibility & Women’s Labor Force Participation→

Discussions of unequal distributions are present in most evening news segments. Calls against income inequality and wealth inequality often dominate political discussions, especially as we prepare for the upcoming election cycle. Oftentimes, there is an assumption that capitalism is the system that produces such stark differences in distribution. However, this is not the case. Price’s Law states that the square root of a given population produces 50% of the total production. The model does not prove nearly as profound in smaller populations as it does in larger populations. For example, if 10 bricks are produced in a group of 10 Continue reading Unequal Distributions and Price’s Law→

Last Thursday students at the University of Puget Sound band together to boycott Magoo’s due to the increase in price of their beer pitchers from $5 to $6.50.  Dirty Oscar’s Annex instead proved to be the popular choice of the night and experienced an increase in customers. While the majority found themselves in the famous tater tot bar that is DOA, few were left out of the memo or stuck to their preferences and brought their business to Magoo’s.  Now that this Thursday has rolled around, loggers are left confused of where to go tonight. Previously posted this week on Continue reading DOA vs Magoo’s: A Coordination Model→

An interview about a neat thesis on an issue that many of us from the Bay Area and similar tech-crazed regions are familiar with! Natanya is an Economics major with Business and Math minors. You can check out her thesis here if you want to know more! What’s your thesis about? How tech workers impact median household prices. I looked at this from an econometric standpoint, collected data from the Census Bureau, and then used a fixed effects model to analyze whether [tech workers] have an impact, adjusting for variables like entity and time and other variables that may affect Continue reading Thesis Corner: Natanya Glatt→

ABC’s long-running hit television series The Bachelor (and sister show The Bachelorette) can show a few different principles of economics. One very basic economic principle on hand is artificial scarcity. The premise of the show is to introduce one attractive, single man to thirty attractive and single women, who are all potential romantic partners for the bachelor. Then over the course of several weeks the producers of the show send the bachelor and his assembly of potential romantic partners on competitive “group dates” and intimate “one-on-ones”, where the women compete with each other for the Bachelor’s affection. This all culminates Continue reading Artificial Scarcity in ABC’s “The Bachelor”→

With China looking to capitalize on its national consumerism, Chinese investors are beginning to dump money into none other than the worlds greatest competition; football (not the american kind). Xi Jinping aims to raise the bar in terms of economic standards on the pitch saying that his dream for Chinese soccer is to make its teams “among the world’s best”. Here lies the barriers to that outcome. Of China’s 1.386 billion people, a majority live in cities, renowned for their extremely dense populations. For this reason, space to manufacture soccer fields and stadiums is not readily available in the areas Continue reading China’s Plan to Groom the Next Cristiano Ronaldo→