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Rajdeep Sengupta (Fed. Reserve of Kansas City)

Monday, March 18, 2024 - 3:40 pm to 5:00 pm
Event Type: 

Description: Department Seminar: Rajdeep Sengupta (Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City)

Location: 368A Heady Hall

Contact Person: Juan Carlos Cordoba

How to make price point identification for profitable program delivery?

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How to make price point identification for profitable program delivery?
Answer: 

Economists are said to know the price of everything and the value of nothing. I actually think that's backward. Figuring out the price is tough. Whenever someone asks me, "What do you think the price for this should be (usually it's a stock)?" I'm stumped. But, there are some tricks to get you started. One easy "back of the envelope" method is called the breakeven price. The breakeven price, as its name suggests, will tell you the minimum you would need to charge so that your costs exactly match your revenues: you are just breaking even.

Fantasy Football Strategies

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Fantasy Football Strategies
Answer: 

Thanks for your ‘Ask an Economist’ question. I will provide some thoughts, but may not be able to answer it completely to your satisfaction given I do not fully understand how your fantasy league operates.

What’s the difference between a mutual savings bank and mutual holding company?

Abbreviated Question: 
What’s the difference between a mutual savings bank and mutual holding company?
Answer: 

A mutual savings bank (MSB) is a chartered financial intermediary that operates as an association of individuals who are depositors, also known as members.  MSBs are owned by their depositors, not stockholders, and this means that an MSB’s profits are distributed to the depositors, typically in the form of higher rates on deposits and lower borrowing rates.  This is in contrast to a traditional bank whose profits go to stockholders, or investors who may have no deposits in the MSB.  An MSB naturally takes a local focus in its strategic direction and prioritizing its depositor

Arena football league

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Arena football league
Answer: 

If I understand your question correctly, you are asking about factors that will determine the success or failure of the Arena Football League.  As with any firm or industry, ‘economic’ success or failure depends on the ability of the firm or industry to generate revenues long term in excess of costs.  There is a long list (source = Wikipedia) of mainly indoor football leagues that have not been able to do that and are now ‘defunct’:

Defunct leagues

    arenafootball2 2000-2009

Hiding a Cure For Cancer or a Treatment?

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Hiding a Cure For Cancer or a Treatment?
Answer: 

You have put your finger on an important topic that economists have been arguing about since Kenneth Arrow’s analysis of the incentives to innovate in “Economic Welfare and the Allocation of Resources for Inventions” in _The Rate and Direction of Inventive Activity_, edited by Richard Nelson (1962).  As the subsequent discussion illustrates, one can, with different plausible assumptions produce situations in which the incentive will be either to introduce the superior innovation (cure for cancer) or to hold it off the market.

Souk (store) Clustering

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Souk (store) Clustering
Answer: 

Souks and bazaars are in appearance competitive market places. The close proximity of shops selling virtually identical goods should drive price down. So, why do shops locate close to each other instead of locations where they would have less competition?

Government acquisition of goods and services with auditors?

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Government acquisition of goods and services with auditors?
Answer: 

I am not sure I agree with the premise that the government buys a lot of goods and services which are otherwise not traded in a competitive market. (I suppose military expenses come under that description, to some extent.). If we assume that goods that the government buys are otherwise also sold in competitive markets, and if auditors were not present, then the government  could pay a contractor $x for a good only if the contractor could prove that the same good was being sold on the market at a price no lower than $x.