Category Archives: Our Economic World

Am I Forgetting Anything Important?

By Josh Weil | Published: March 14, 2010
In order to study human action within any institutional setting, a researcher needs a cursory understanding of ownership, insatiability, self-interestedness, rationality, preferences and constraints, time, uncertainty, and diminishing returns. Update: Included uncertainty Social Bookmarking
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Coasian Bargaining FAIL

By Charlie Deist | Published: March 11, 2010
I recently had the unfortunate experience of finding out that the shiny red bike I bought a few weeks ago from the Ashby Flea was stolen property. I was notified via a napkin taped to my handlebars that said that I had stolen her bike along with a request to please call “Mimi” and return it. Shucks. When I [...]
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iPads, Blogs and Answers

By Charlie Deist | Published: January 27, 2010
By the numbers, US economic performance over the past decade has not been impressive. However, there are other indicators of progress that NBER and BLS statistics do not convey. I don’t know how the Consumer Price Index currently accounts for changes to the quality of consumer electronics, but even if they could account for the vast [...]
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Pareto Efficiency: Rides Home Edition

By Charlie Deist | Published: December 28, 2009
Economists often speak of efficiency, which I fear might further people’s perception of economics as a calculating, dismal science, unconnected to more “human” social sciences. I think that the word “efficient” carries the negative connotation of a robot-like, profit-maximizing corporation, concerned only with the bottom line. This is an unfortunate mischaracterization, because many economic definitions [...]
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