George Stigler Econ 490 fall 2019

I think its interesting to analyze decisions in this fashion, debating whether it was for future risk protection or current utilization.   There are a couple decisions that I can turn to and take the current circumstances and future effects into consideration. Most notable is the collective decision to accumulate some student debt. I say collective because it was not a completely independent decision, I had the help of my parents. It initially seems like a choice being made because it seems good at the time, as I would not have to commit as much financially in the current year (and the couple years after). But, the intention all along was to be able to take advantage of financial aid opportunities to decrease the financial burden in the five or ten years after I graduate. So the financial aid discussion was definitely a long-term approach. In terms of the choice of college, that was more of a choice that sounded and seemed good at that time. This is in no way saying it was a bad ...

This was an interesting exercise, seeing how not only my writing has changed, but how the content of the blog posts have changed over these first seven weeks of the semester. Re-reading my prior posts, there were definitely some themes that were present throughout multiple posts (or at least themes that should have been evident, based on the prompts). A theme that seemed to reappeared seemed to be costs, and how they mattered in the context of the prompt. Transaction costs were discussed in the organizational change post, and the costs of taking advantage of certain circumstances were present in the opportunism post. On a smaller scale, there was some talk of costs in the Illinibucks context, maybe in more of an opportunity cost format (the next-best alternative to using Illinibucks for a certain function). For me personally, the connections were clearer after I read your responses to the post. Whether it was me not understanding a concept or connecting the dots the wrong way, I ...

This is an interesting hypothetical to analyze. One of the first questions I had reading this prompt was ‘would all students receive the same allocation of Illinibucks’? If so, then this puts everyone at a level playing field, and it is up to the students to effectively use their allocation, as everyone has the same amount and people can’t just overpay (if they had more than others) even if they don’t value it at that price. The administered prices would have to be high enough so everyone can’t buy everything so easily. Some of the things that the Illinibuck system could work for would be class registration, advisor meetings, housing selection, and others. Using a single “currency” system for these different factors would force students to prioritize these. They may value housing more than course selection, or vice-versa. This would only work if these things had the same administered price. If a student is forced to choose between having first selection of a class or a dorm at a simi...