Monday, October 28, 2013

Don't Forget About Seinfeld!

Last week I was able to meet Linda Ghent at the National Economics Teaching Association Conference in Austin, Tx. Little did I know that Linda was the author of one of my favorite economics sources: YadaYadaYadaEcon.com, which covers Seinfeld if you didn't catch the reference.

If you like economics or you like Seinfeld, please check it out.

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Twitter and Economics?

Yes! Of course Twitter is part of economics. Each day there are millions of users supplying content at essentially no cost (granted, some of it is more valuable than others). At the exact same time (unless your Kanye West), there are people you can follow and get updates from. Every fraction of a second, supply and demand factors are occurring right in front of our computer screens. What does this have to do with economics you ask? Who you decide to follow is a choice, and that choice is based on some characteristics of the individual. For the most part, we follow our friends, a few fast food restaurants, and some celebrities.

Using Regular Express, a colleague and I have captured demand characteristics for pundits. We evaluate whether a professional prognosticator, like Nate Silver, earns more followers (more demand) whenever they supply confidence or accuracy. We collected tweets from the 2012 MLB playoffs and World Series, the 2013 NFL Super Bowl, and currently combing through the 2013 NCAA March Madness tournament. Our samples are based on demand for professional pundits (verified Twitter accounts), self-proclaimed professionals (based on their Twitter bio), and the general public.

The results might surprise you!

Thank you to WSU News for covering our research. If you're interested in reading the more technical results, they can be found on my colleague's site.

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Community Service and Economics

It's no surprised that there is an underwhelming level of community service in our society, even though there are dozens of organizations in need of volunteers. Washington State University even has a designated office on campus to help connect students with volunteer opportunities. Since I started teaching, I knew that integrating community service into my courses was a priority. I really started it last semester with a canned food drive:
For a mere 3 bonus points (0.3% of their final grade), I volunteered to take canned food or toiletries to the CAC Food Bank on their behalf. The results were overwhelming to say the least. The class of 200 students responded by bringing in over 500 cans of food, 68 paper products, and dozens of "other" goods.

The first response I received from fellow faculty members was, "what does this have to do with economics?" I quickly told them nothing, and that I wanted to give them the opportunity to give back to the community. So I took the challenge to implement economics and community service together. Using a GoFundMe All-Or-Nothing Campaign, I challenged my 100 person course to raise a little over $500 to donate to the local YMCA. If the class meets the goal by the deadline, the YMCA will receive $500 and every person in the class (regardless of whether they donate) will receive 15 bonus points, plus some incentives along the way.

Hopefully our well versed economists know what economic theory will suggest, but do you think that will be the actual result? Can the students overcome the theory and reach the socially optimal outcome? I guess we'll find out in 16 days!  Do you have any other ideas on how to link community service with economics? 

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Diminishing Marginal Utility with Swiss Cake Rolls

This challenge would have definitely centered around Twinkies, had it not been for their bankruptcy and subsequent disappearance from shelves. Hopefully a deal can be reached to bring back the golden rolls of glory in time for this summer. Until then, Swiss Cake Rolls must suffice.

Early in every semester, I like to engage the class in a "real life" example of some type of economic phenomenon. Too often, instructors jump in with the dull routine of supply vs. demand, and efficiency vs. equity. Instead, I like to grab a few students, make them engulf 10 Swiss Cake Rolls (voluntarily of course), and then ask them how they feel. Luckily for the class, that concept won't be taught for a few weeks, but it at least gets them excited about economics.

For those unfamiliar with diminishing returns, as people employ additional units of inputs, their output increases at a decreasing rate. What does that have to do with Swiss Cake Rolls? Consider our hungry eaters as trying to maximize their utility (output) by consuming the delectable dessert (inputs). They were extremely happy with the first one, but the second one didn't bring them nearly as much satisfaction, nor did the subsequent desserts. On the consumer side, this is referred to as diminishing marginal utility. The video should help show the effects of diminishing returns. Thankfully no one had negative returns:


Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Rum and Coke: A Case of Complements

During my Fundamentals of Microeconomics class I routinely used alcohol for almost every section of my lessons. Why? College students understand alcohol much better than they do wheat and butter. Almost every chapter can be adapted to include some reference to alcohol, its production, or its consumption.

A fellow Twitter economist (@Patelnomics) posted a nice graphic of complements. I'm not sure where the source originated, but I found it from his, so I'll give him proper credit. Without a doubt, this is a great example of stores bundling complementary goods to reduce the search costs of buyers.


What was your favorite example of complements as an economics student? What did your professors use that you found boring?