The Story So Far We have two posts so far in this series. In the first one, I have tried to explain the nature of the problem regarding the argument between the Southern states and the Union government. In the second post, I have tried to fit the problem into a framework borrowed from international … Continue reading “Bob and Ronald Come to India, Part III”
People ‘job-hop’ much more these days. Where it was very unusual for people to change jobs at one point of time, this slowly but surely changed over time. And today, we live in a world where not only is job hopping common, an increasingly large number of people are choosing to not work formally with … Continue reading “The Times, They’re A-Changing: The Firm Edition”
I have a friend who isn’t a big fan of the word “externality”. I’m an economist, and we’ve been force-fed gallons of the stuff back when we were in college, so I couldn’t for the life of me understand why anybody would object to such a simple, obvious and (to me, at any rate) useful … Continue reading “So, About That Externality Business…”
I’d gone to the RTO the other day for some work, and I suppose you know what comes next. I wouldn’t say it is impossible to get work done without the help of an agent, but it is certainly true that it isn’t a breeze either. And if one teaches opportunity costs, it makes sense … Continue reading “A Conversation With Rationality”
About five years ago, The Economist published a series of essays, based around six big ideas in economics. Each essay is really well written, and I would strongly recommend that you read them. In no particular order, they’re about the Stolper Samuelson theorem from international trade theory, Minsky’s work on business cycles, Akerlof’s paper on … Continue reading “Six Big Economic Ideas”
Why does Gokhale Institute exist? Why did all of the students at Gokhale Institute not choose to try and fashion their own degree, by independently getting in touch with faculty members of various universities the world over, and negotiating rates for teaching each subject? Similarly, why did I join Gokhale Institute as a faculty member? … Continue reading “In Memoriam: Oliver Williamson”
There is an impossible trilemma at play when it comes to writing explainers: How does one manage to be simple, interesting and comprehensive all at once? And the short answer to the question is that this isn’t possible. One can choose to be simple and interesting, but one must then give up on covering everything … Continue reading “We, The Citizens: A Review”
What is the Coase Theorem? Watch. .. .. Why does it matter? Listen. .. .. Where all is it applicable? Laugh. .. .. “Coasean solutions exist. But governments need to set up the relevant property rights and create an exchange, and then trust its prices to incentivize the appropriate action.” .. .. And here’s the … Continue reading “Ec101: Links for 21st November, 2019”
“Coase’s originality was not in his reasoning, but in recognizing that economic exchange is not the mere trading of physical goods but trading rights to property or rights to engage in certain types of conduct affecting property.” .. .. Was Ronald Coase the first to come up with the Coase theorem? .. .. “However, the … Continue reading “EC101: Links for 10th October, 2019”
Five economic theorems you may not have heard of. They are somewhat abstruse, but all are truly interesting. All Wikipedia articles too – like Twitter, grossly underrated. “In game theory, Aumann’s agreement theorem is a theorem which demonstrates that rational agents with common knowledge of each other’s beliefs cannot agree to disagree. It was … Continue reading “EC101: Links for 25th July, 2019”
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