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Final Post

I was not sure what to expect coming into this class as this was the first Econ 490 that I have taken. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the course had a more relaxed feel that focused on obtaining useful information for the future. It so often happens that I wonder how the content of the courses I am taking will fit into my life or career after graduation. However, I found the content in Professor Arvan’s class to very applicable to future jobs and everyday life. The extra attention to the synthesis of ideas was especially interesting. When it comes to the attendance policies in this class, I am on the fence. On the one hand, it is nice to have a few classes a semester in which attendance is not required, so in the case of an emergency or unexpected illness there is not extra stress of losing points. However, if attendance is not required I find myself making excuses to skip class. Whether the excuses are legitimate or not, it is likely that whatever I end up doing is not as pr...
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Team Production and Gift Exchange

In all three of the New York Times articles that we read included children in some way or another, so I immediately thought of my family and my brothers, specifically. My family as a team works pretty well and I would give credit to my parents for that. They have tried their best to make things as fair as possible for my two brothers and I as we grew up.  In the article, “The Power of Altruism”, David Brooks describes how the likelihood of being kind drops when the act is rewarded. It then becomes an economic transaction, and people feel less guilty for not doing the kind act. When my younger brother and I were both pretty young, we were good about doing things for each other without the impression of receiving anything back. We would often fetch one another a drink if one was heading to the fridge, or changing the channel on TV to something we both enjoyed. Once we got a bit older, I started taking advantage of this. My brother ended up doing a lot more favors, and he realized he...
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Managing Uncertainty and Risk

Recently, whenever I start to think of the nearing future, post-college, I get very anxious and quickly try to focus on other things. There is a lot of uncertainty that comes with graduating college and entering the “real world” that I would rather disregard than contemplate. However, it is inevitable, so my parents and I have done a number of things throughout the years to manage some of this uncertainty. They have saved money in order to support me through my education and I have tried to chose viable paths to invest in. I have never had a clear picture of what I wanted my life as an adult to look like. When I was a child, my dream jobs included everything from astronaut to interior designer. This uncertainty continued throughout high school and college, never fully knowing what I wanted to pursue. Luckily my parents have helped in managing my indecisiveness and have tried to steer me towards more risk averse options.  The first big decision I had to make that would truly affec...
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Illinibucks

When considering a way in which students could use a created currency, or Illinibucks, to secure a certain space or item that is in high demand, I wonder why this does not exist already. With the way things work now, students are kind of helpless when faced with situations like registration or long lines in the dining hall. Illinibucks could give students more control when it comes to their needs or preferences within the university. Depending on how the university decided to allocate the Illinibucks, a reasonable student could plan accordingly to meet their specific needs during their time at the university. Of course not all students act reasonably, so they could end up losing as a result of Illinibucks. Also, I would think that allocating on a semester basis would be most practical as apposed to yearly or just once, at least for students. They could then plan for a nearer, more foreseeable future, and transfer or exchange students would not be at an advantage as they would be i...
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Opportunism

In my experience with different jobs or organizations, the people who act opportunistically will mostly do so whenever they can. On the other hand, I find that people who do not will almost never act this way. It is hard to tell whether this has to do with their own ethics or their particular interest within the group.  One specific experience I have had with opportunistic behavior involves the same job I talked about in my last blog post. I touched a bit on the opportunistic behavior of some of my coworkers during my time working at a video rental store and on one of the managers I had for about have of the time I worked there. The manager did not have a sufficient procedure in place to know what the employees did during their shifts. There was a long list of tasks around the store to do during just one shift such as vacuuming, mopping, cleaning the bathroom, inventory, phone calls, etc. If someone were to do none of these or even just a couple, it would make it hard for the ...
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Management and Transaction Costs

I have worked a few part time jobs in the past, and through this I have noticed the differences in managing tactics that can create certain transaction costs or opportunistic behavior. My last job was working at a video rental store. There was a change in management while I was working there. The differences between the approaches that each manager took was evident, as were the consequences of these different approaches. The first manager was definitely much better at managing out than managing down within the store. Most notably, the way she communicated with the employees was unprofessional and inefficient. It left room for miscommunication that led to transaction costs and opportunistic behavior. When the second manager came in, he was able to set a new tone with steady communication and clear expectations. The first manager did well when doing the tasks in the store herself, but was not clear about the delegation of tasks to the employees under her. Maybe she thought we all sh...
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Vilfredo Pareto

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Vilfredo Pareto was an Italian economist, sociologist, and philosopher born in Paris in 1848. He started his education there until his family moved back to Italy where he continued his education at the Polytechnic Institute in Turin. There he studied mathematics and literature before graduating in 1869. After graduating, he worked as an engineer for a couple railroads. Despite being an active critic of the Italian government's economic policies and publishing work denouncing protectionism and militarism, he did not study economics until the age of forty-two. He was inspired by Pantaleoni's Pure Economics and Leon Walras's work, specifically, the theory of general economic equilibrium. After meeting Pareto, Walras was impressed and pleased with his understanding of his work and quickly became a mentor to him. Pareto eventually took over Walras's work as the Chair of Economics at the University of Lausanne after he retired. There, he began his scientific career, pub...
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