Robert Giffen Econ 490 Fall 2019 Blog

Coming out of high school, I was split between engineering and business majors. I enjoyed my science, math, accounting, and economics classes, however, I enjoyed the business and economics classes slightly more. Ultimately I chose what I saw as the safer choice, engineering. Engineering degrees typically earn more money and it is easier to get into the business field  with an MBA, regardless of your undergraduate degree. I didn’t have a strong preference, so I picked the safer option. This is similar to the equilibrium game where the Pareto dominated outcome is the expected outcome. Although I enjoyed my business classes slightly more, I went with what I believed had the lowest risk. As you can probably tell, this decision was the right one for me because I am now happily in economics. Looking back at it, I wish I was more risk prone and had originally chosen  a business related major. Each summer I worked or had an internship to gain experience and ultimately get...

1.       Half of my blog posts connect the prompts back to my work experience, interning and working as a warehouse associate. This isn’t all surprising to me because a large portion of the topics so far are somehow related to the workforce. Another theme that I noticed when reviewing my old posts is that all of them are pessimistic. They point out negative aspects of jobs I’ve had or poke holes in situations I’ve been in. I didn’t intentionally do this and only noticed once I reread them. I’m assuming this is because it could be easier to write from a negative point of view and I subconsciously was doing this. 2.         Within my opportunism blog post, I was able to connect to the idea of labor being used as a buffer. I experienced it firsthand and never truly realized exactly what was happening until I took this class. Looking back at it now, it is clear that I could have connected this idea into my first blog post. This wa...

If the university gave each student an allocation of Illinibucks, it would incentivize students to use “pay” for what matters the most, also it would give the University  more information on what students want. Students would put their hypothetical money where their mouth is and in turn the university would be able to collect data on what students prefer.  Illinibucks would primarily be used to register for classes earlier than others. Registering for classes can be a pain, even as a senior who has priority registration. Classes fill up extremely quickly and if you must change your schedule later it can be very difficult to get into classes. Allowing the ability to use your Illinibucks to get even earlier registration would ameliorate this situation slightly. It would allow students who truly need or want a certain class to allocate their Illinibucks to ensure they have a better chance of getting a seat in the class. This would be beneficial to freshmen who may be i...

            Group project can be one of the most annoying assignments required to do because of the possibility of being stuck doing the majority of work. Fortunately, the majority of group projects I have been part of haven’t turned out like this; however, they had other smaller problems. Almost all of the group projects I have been part of were for upper level econ classes. This has the benefit that most students chose to take these classes, so they are generally more knowledgeable and interested in the course content. This typically solves the problem of one or two students doing the entire project, but solving this problem uncovers a few smaller problems. My most recent group project is a prime example of some of these smaller problems.             This group project was for Econ 460, Financial Economics, and our team had to research and present on the financial health...

The summer after my freshman year I worked in a textbook warehouse as a warehouse associate. For the first week on the job, my sole responsibility was to stand near a conveyor belt and take totes with books off the line and sort the totes by the colored labels on them. This was at best mind numbing and monotonous, but it had to be done. Because this was early in the summer, the company was solely focused on buying used books to resell in the fall, so everyday hundreds of new books would be brought into the warehouse. The totes I took off would be picked up by other workers and the books inside would be placed in their appropriate location in the warehouse. This job, at least in my opinion, was far superior because it allowed you to walk around all day rather than being stuck along a conveyor belt for eight hours a day. However, after about a week and a half working the line, I was trained on the technology and began working as one of the people who put books away. I enjoyed this ...

Although I don’t have a large amount of experiences within organizations, when I read the prompt, I immediately thought of one specific experience. This past summer I was an intern at a large consulting firm, and as part of the internship I worked on a team implementing an HR software for an insurance company. Over the summer, I experienced transaction costs firsthand and saw how they can affect an entire team or organization. The team I was assigned to was solely focused on implementing an HR software, WorkDay, and worked in a separate office than the rest of the company. About two years ago, the company I was working for purchased a smaller consulting firm and as part of the acquisition they acquired their office space. Although I didn’t witness this merge firsthand, the effects of it were obvious to me from the coffee cups with the old company’s logo to the fact that I’ve heard my coworkers talk about it several times over the summer. Acquiring an extra unneeded office is a cle...

Robert Giffen was a economist and statistician born in Strathaven Scotland in 1837. He is most famous for his "Paradox". Giffen noted in 1890 an exception to the law of demand, certain goods demand rise as the price increase. These goods are now named after him and called Giffen goods. He is also well renowned for his work and research in the economics of banking. Robert Giffin also worked exstensivley within the British government, holding positions such as: Head of the statistical department of the board of trade, controller general, and chief statistical adviser to the government. Sadly in 1910 he suddenly passed away at the age of 72.