Ask an Economist
Would the transition be better if I pursued pure mathematics instead, because my experiences has been lately in proof making? What can I look forward to? How and what should I be looking into, to start off, if economics is a good choice? I am a highly curious person. Plus, I have worked hard, I have been doing pure mathematics on my own since 2004 until presently; but, it has been slow going; so, I thought that by going into something that has a better return in investments of my intellectual energy, I should try microeconomics?
The prospect of a mid-life career change would be daunting for anyone. In the end, you’ll have to make that difficult decision on your own. But I can give you a few tips on how you might begin to explore whether a career in economics...
After about a month when the commodity has less than 2 weeks of shelf life it may be sold at .69/lb and then discarded after another week.
1) Why would the store not further discount these items at let's say .30/lb to clear the complete stock? ( I understand it is so as not to let the global/US prices of the commodity go down.)
2) Is wasting better for the store than to sell it at a discount?
3) Even if customers stop buying fresh commodity and start to wait until the price goes down to .30/lb. Isn't it economically profitable to the store to actually sell it than waste it ?
Thanks
Food waste arises from preferences, incentives, and constraints. Retailers have time and other resource constraints which implies that it simply will not be worth it to sell every last item of food in every instance. It can be said that there is...
Okay, so this is going to be a really stupid question but I need to know the answer to this. There is a message board about collecting video games and we got into a argument about the definition of the word "rarity." With these games, we all know the exact amount of copies printed for each title. Say Game A has 2000 copies printed and Game B has 5000 copies printed. Assuming that no copies are lost or destroyed, Game A will always be rarer, correct? Someone else is arguing that the availability of copies on the secondary market changes this.
If Game A has 20 copies available on the marketplace right now and Game B only has 2 copies, would Game B be considered to be rarer overall? At that moment in time, sure, but overall, I would say no. Is either of us correct? Would the monetary value of the game on the secondary market change the definition of rarity? Thanks for your time!
In the strictest (or standard) sense of the word, you would be correct that game A is “rarer,” given that there are fewer of these in existence than game B. However, the other person is not totally wrong because, in the words of economists, the “...
I'm running a Dungeons & Dragons campaign, and my players found such a magical cup. I want their spending sprees to create a major conflict, but I want it to slowly unfold.
An interesting question that I’m not sure there’s a precise answer to, especially given my limited knowledge of Dungeons & Dragons, so I’ll try to unpack some of intuition around money supply.
I’ll start with some assumptions and what...
This is a very interesting question and one I'm sure a lot of people are seeking an answer to. Admittedly, the 7.6% interest rate is pretty high and it adds up to a significant amount of money over the course of six years.
Achieving...
I came to economics not knowing anything about the job. I had an economics class in high school and I enjoyed it, and since I don't have any real passion or am very good at any other thing, I decided to follow it and entered one of the best universities in the country. I'm not the best student, nor the most hardworking (although I try to be more productive). I'm failing Calculus I right now, but I'm excelling in Microeconomics I. It's not that I'm bad at math, I actually got a good score on my final exam in high school, but I tend to perform badly in math/calculus evaluations even though I usually knew more than my friends/colleagues and helped them with homework and that stuff. What I'm trying to say is that I'm good at and like microeconomics and am average at math (haven't studied macro yet).
I've tried to understand what an economist does, and what I got from it was analyzing graphs and writing about them (?). I'm a bit lost on the topic. I like it, I find it interesting, I just need some direction.
Now to the final and most important topic, I wanted to ask, as an economics student, what should I do outside of my basic studies? Should I learn how to code? Learn about politics? Do I need to read any specific books? I know in a certain way degrees are losing value, and it's more about what we do outside of our professional/academic life, and I really need to improve that area. I want to leave Portugal after my studies because, even though I love my country and culture, salaries and quality of life aren't the best, and I know for that I need a good curriculum and abilities.
In conclusion, what advice do you have for an economics student who wants to make it but is a bit lost and in crucial need of direction?
You have asked several important questions. As with many areas of advanced study, getting a full understanding of economics requires some time and the effort of building solid foundations, and sometimes it's hard to see where these early studies...
Q: Are these people in Texas living so far beyond their means that they have to go to a food bank because of the pandemic or are they taking advantage of the free food or ...? I just don't understand the fancy cars at a food bank--it doesn't make sense!
This is a very difficult question to answer but certainly an important one! Unfortunately, the pandemic has had some very sudden and very negative effects on our economy. Keep in mind that COVID was/is a very large shock that was also very...
The question of Africa uniting is not a theoretical one; indeed, there are ongoing efforts toward regional integration and economic cooperation. The African Union (AU), through its eight...
Some of the highest paid pro athletes today are paid $30-40 million per year. For example, Lebron James (NBA) just signed a two-year extension with the Lakers at over $40 million/year. Just based on the 'time value of money' concept alone, if one...
There are many reasons a student might choose to study economics, and consequently many different types of extra-curricular activities you might want to pursue. Economics is, at its base, a study of how individuals and societies make choices...
Is this in your opinion a negative externality I could charge the city for at year end? If this was just my home and I had to clean up the city's leaves I would not have a problem. Is there a threshold of a financial burden that may be achieved before a lawsuit can be considered viable?
A negative externality often describes a situation where a power plant or a farmer's production led to pollution and lost ecosystem services. In this case, it might be tricky to argue that these leaves are a result of the city's "production" or "...
Increases in the minimum wage tend to cause firms to raise wages for those whose wages were initially above the new minimum in order to maintain the former pay hierarchy. The biggest effect is on workers closest to the minimum wage. There is also...
Yet, we are not currently under normal market conditions. I believe it is unlikely that our economy will be very far along in recovery from the economic fallout of the pandemic as the increases go into effect. Given the additional pressures of increased costs in goods, materials, and additional sanitization practices and equipment, coupled with uncertainty and reduced spending in most categories leading to numerous businesses of all sizes already reducing staff or failing completely, will mandating this at this time lead to even more job losses, business closures, and their related losses to the tax base?
While I recognize how stagnant wages have been and the crunch of the resulting loss in buying power as the costs of goods have increased (made even worse by the pandemic), I am concerned that voting to approve this measure at this moment will lead to cascading failure. Of course, I want to fight for people to make a fair wage. Though, if there aren't going to be enough jobs left from which to earn, it becomes a poisoned chalice. Furthermore, this will have an unbalanced impact in less metropolitan areas with a lower median wage versus areas that already have a higher median wage and can absorb it more easily.
Florida is putting a minimum wage to a referendum of voters. The proposed minimum wage policy would raise the minimum wage from its current $8.86 to $10.00 per hour effective September 30th, 2021. Each September 30th thereafter, the minimum wage...
**For example, for preschool we have three morning sessions per week. Some children attend on just one or two sessions per week, so there are also these variables which makes it hard to anticipate. That’s partly why I’d thought of reducing fees for the winter, and offer a promotion for signing up for the entire stretch.
Also, how to present it clearly to the board of directors so they understand (maybe a graph/spreadsheet?)
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'...
The easiest way to respond to this question is to answer in the context of custom feedyards that are included in the ISU Beef Feedlot Monitor - ...
China mainly cuts corporate tax and fees (no tax cut for individuals) during the COVID-19 epidemic period so that firms could have incentive to increase the production compared to the scenario without tax and fee cuts.
...
1) What do economists think of the Lange model: https://blogs.cornell.edu/info2040/2015/10/19/the-lange-model-of-socialism/? Does it adequately address the economic calculation problem? Tying into this question, is it true that Robin Cox is thought to have won the debate around the ECP? Or was it Mises, Hayek, or James Scott?
2) Finally, I would appreciate any insight toward this economic system: Instead of prices, it uses calculation in kind. It accomplishes this by decentralizing economic decision-making, by means of turning firms into self-managed associations joined in horizontal federations, which assess how much is taken at distribution centers by means of book-keeping and assess how many physical quantities of the goods they particularly use are required. I know this is a bit brief, but the part of this comment that explains this further starts with "But now, there is still a question to answer, how could an economy not based in prices make rational decisions" (it's toward the end).": https://www.reddit.com/r/CapitalismVSocialism/comments/4ib76d/automation_capitalism_v_socialism/d2wx6la/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2xthat.
Any insight would be greatly appreciated!
1. A mainstream neoclassical synthesis economist would say that this system can be doable but it has what we would call a lot of incentive compatibility problems. It is not only the fact that the government needs to be accurate in...
If the principle has a name, I suppose it would be DIVERSIFICATION. But, given the inclusion of the words “boards to research new uses for their product,” the questioner may also be asking about how do agricultural industries decide whether to...
Currently, DOCSIS 3.1 modems are widely-used as they support speeds up to 2 Gbps (5 times the bandwidth of the 3.0 standard). Of course they cost more. In the real-world situation my friend faces, should he pay $117 for the 3.0 modem or $149 for the 3.1 modem?
My argument for 3.1 is this: Modems last a long time. About 7 years ago, I had subscribed to faster internet service and was only receiving about 1/3 the bandwidth I was paying for. I learned that I needed a modem that supported the faster speed. After research, I learned I needed a 3.0 modem (the current standard at the time). I bought the new modem and instantly experienced the significantly faster internet I was paying for. I've had my current modem for seven years (and I'll upgrade to 3.1 if I ever subscribe to gigabit service). Even at a life expectancy of 7 years the difference is 38 cents per month.
In many regions, gigabit internet is becoming standard. In the next several years, I anticipate that gigabit will be the default service offered by providers. If you have a 3.0 modem, you effectively will only be able to harness up to 40% of the capacity you're subscribed to.
His argument for 3.0 modem is this: He's had 75 Mbps internet service for years now and he's fine. He lives alone (38 year old male). He claims he is certain he won't partner with anyone. He says he will never need more than 400 Mbps anyways. If he ends up with gigabit service and can only use 40% of it, it won't matter.
Individual consumers have different preferences and information, which guide those individuals to choose what is best for themselves. Your friend seems quite determined that he will not use faster internet even if gigabit service were to be...
The idea underlying diversification is to achieve a desired expected rate of return at the smallest possible risk. If there are two investments that are perfectly negatively correlated, then by investing in both you could achieve a rate of return...
I've tried to find any information that relates to this question but have been unable to find any due to my limited grasp of complicated economic systems and how they interact with one another. My main hope is that exploring this line of thought might lead to a solution of being able to pay rent and have the ability for upward mobility no matter what your income is.
Traditional economics tells us that price ceilings lead to shortages. A lower price encourages sellers to reduce the quantity they supply to the market. A lower price also encourages buyers to increase the quantity they demand. As a result,...
I think you are using the term "nationalize" to mean the US government buying US farm products. The US is a major exporter of meat and grains and these products are typically more expensive in other countries than they are in the US. So the US...
It seems there are two markets for condominiums: units that allow dogs (Market Dog) and units that do not (Market Sad). My black lab mentioned that the latter group are probably sad folks. OK – my econ jokes in class aren’t any better.
On...
The controversy over President Trump’s suspension of temp worker visas got me wondering if there might be a connection. I have seen both sides argue about the effect of H1B visas on employment and salaries, both in IT and in the nation at large, but I am wondering about the effect on entry into the field.
The reason I wonder is that IT skills are very transferable, and a citizen or green card holder is much more able to take advantage of that ability, while a worker on a temp visa may require a bigger benefit to justify the hassle and risk of leaving. In this hypothesis, corporations choose temp workers instead of potentially training their competition’s talent, and not because of a salary differential. Over time, this degrades the pool of local employees, justifying further temp worker visas.
My two questions are, one, is this economically plausible? And two, is there any evidence of it occurring in the US?
I think the basic mechanism you describe could well be part of the complex story of how the H1-B visa affects domestic workers in IT. The H1-B visa program does expand the supply of workers for certain kinds of jobs, potentially reducing the...
I will try to answer the questions as I interpret them, but first, it is important to explain what the facts are.
Annual compensation includes wages and salaries, but also benefits. Benefits including federal social insurance taxes,...
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