Everyday economics from the University of Puget Sound
Two announcements to send your way! First, our next Econ Social Hour will happen this Friday, April 17th, from 4-6 pm at Engine House No. 9. All economics students are welcome! Additionally, here is an internship opportunity at the Washington State Economic and Revenue Forecast Council. The internship involves updating the Washington State Economic Climate Survey. The closing date is April 30, 2015. To apply, CLICK HERE!
As a disclaimer, I am not against careers in finance. I plan on pursuing one myself. Where a student goes with their qualifications and talents is a greatly personal decision. I’m not a senior, but I know many students who are. The stress of graduating and moving on to the next stage in your life can be exciting, terrifying or both. Many students are already making employment decisions before they even walk across the stage and get their degree(s). As an economics major, I’m no stranger to the assumptions made by my family, peers and even myself that I’m going to pursue Continue reading Is Going into Finance the Best Use of Your Skills?
In my last post I talked about for-profit schools, but failed to mention Division I athletics in this conversation. Although these obviously aren’t technically for-profit, I would argue that the structure of these programs seems to go against the non-profit nature of the schools. The reason I say this is that these programs themselves seem to be almost treated as for-profit entities by the school where they are attempting to maximize the profits made by athletic programs every year. Money drives many of the decisions made by colleges and major athletic conferences to the point where things like television networks are Continue reading Problem with College Athletics
If you turn on the radio and listen to the local northwest radio stations, there seems to be a single conclusion about the region, and specifically Seattle’s future: profound economic growth. People are moving to the northwest in droves, some drawn in by the impressive array of job opportunities available, and others attracted by the sheer appeal of the region (even those without jobs at all.) However, there’s a problem with this rapid development, and that is traffic. While this may sound a little like that person who whines that ‘too many people like them,’ it’s not untrue, and Seattle’s Continue reading Seattle’s Traffic and the Urban Village
As an academic blog, Sound Economics is our way, as students and faculty of economics, to explore economic ideas publicly, engage in debate, and exchange reactions to and analyses of current events. These forums have played an increasing role in economics in recent years. As further evidence of the expansion of economic discussions online, last week former Fed chair Ben Bernanke announced his new blog, hosted at the Brookings Institution. In his own words, Now that I’m a civilian again, I can once more comment on economic and financial issues without my words being put under the microscope by Fed watchers. I look Continue reading Economics in social media
Last week I outlined the history of the podcast. I noticed that previous attempts to launch podcast-like services as organized business ventures had failed. Podcasting only took on its modern form around 2005, when it launched as an open-source method of embedding audio files in RSS feeds. The first user-side podcast service was the personal project of an ex-MTV host. These observations raise the question: why did podcasting emerge outside of the corporate sphere? This week we’ll investigate the emergence of podcasting by looking at it as a disruptive technology. What is a disruptive technology? NPR recently interviewed Ryan Knutson, Continue reading Podcasting: An Emerging Industry? (Part 3)
You’ve probably heard about/experienced the many hardships of being a college* student (and the perks!). Many of the struggles students encounter while going through college can be boiled down to one thing: tuition. College is expensive, pretty much no matter where a student enrolls. As of 2013, about 70% of college students graduated with an average of $28,400 in debt. Why is tuition so high? When I still lived in my hometown of Sacramento, CA, UC Davis students were constantly protesting tuition hikes and class cuts. Many were essentially paying a ton of money to try and take classes they couldn’t Continue reading Why Is College So Expensive?
In economics we define signaling, in simple terms, as a message sent to a receiver containing information about the party sending it, which is assumed to be credible. A well-known example is sending signals with education. When you walk into a doctors office and see his framed diplomas from prestigious medical schools you trust him more. These diplomas are a signal from the doctor to the patient about their credibility and ability to perform. But this definition involves two parties, one sending and one receiving the information. A concept that is largely overlooked in the field of economics is “self-signaling”. Continue reading Self-Signaling: Why Wearing Fakes Makes us Cheat More
Next week is registration for fall semester, which means Economics majors planning on graduating will be signing up for thesis seminar! This year the economics thesis will become an “In Progress” course, which will allow thesis students to have two semesters to write their theses, and students can choose between three professors. The economic thesis professors are Kate Stirling, Matt Warning, and Bruce Mann, and the structure of the classes are designed to be similar. They all, however, have different research backgrounds and foci as economics professors. It is recommended that thesis students choose a professor that focuses what you want to study. Professor Stirling has a Continue reading Choosing a Thesis Topic
Authors: Tesha Shalon and Connor Lennon Often times here, on this blog and elsewhere in the discipline, economics can be a little insular. We’re happy to take our models and insights to how our discipline applies elsewhere, but rarely do we bring in other disciplines to provide an opinion back. So we decided to ask non-economics professors and majors to tell us what they thought economics was. We posed a two part question to the group: 1.) What, in your own words, is economics? and 2.) Is economics useful, why or why not? Without further ado, these are their responses: Continue reading An Outside look In