James Buchanan Econ 490 Fall 2019

Overall, I think I learned a lot through this course. The main thing I enjoyed about blogging and reflecting on material was that it required me to connect it to my own experiences. This was very different from other economics courses I have taken, including the foundational 102, 103, 202, 203, 302, and 303, and urban economics, the other 400-level course I have taken. By applying it to my own personal experiences, I think that the concepts and applications truly have stuck in my head in a more meaningful way. For example, in the beginning of the course, I reflected upon group dynamics in RSOs and other organizations, and I never really thought about what I was doing in that way. I hope this will make me a more effective group member and enable me to better understand these interpersonal connections. Personally, I found the triangle model prompt to be the hardest, for I felt that I did not have much experience with this layout. With the others, I think that I analyzed them in a much mo...

I found this prompt a bit difficult to my own experiences. I feel that I have not encountered many situations like this, as I do not have much experience in the work place with this idea. I tried to think of an example, but I think this addresses this model in a more indirect way. When I was in high school, I was involved with the Youth Running Program. Members of the high school team mentored elementary school students with running track. I think this looked great for the school district, as many places did not offer track opportunities to children so young. It was definitely a good experience for me, as I was able to actually teach about running, something I genuinely enjoy. Also, it was good for the kids, as they learned something new, and good for the parents: they have something to brag about for their children. Throughout my time as a mentor, I encountered many competitive parents who wanted their kids to be the best at track. They were extremely competitive about their kids ev...

Overall, I think that when people have to work together, there is always some area in which conflict arise. Most people do not approach problems the exact same way, which is what makes collaborating so important. However, most of us think our solutions are optimal, and this creates forms of conflict. I will provide an example of this from my internship last summer. Last summer, I was a data analyst at a company, and interns had to work together on a final project to present and show what we learned throughout the summer. Although all of us had the same title in the company, a college student interning for the summer, some people definitely felt more highly of their contributions. When the five of us worked together, immediately, some students assumed a leadership role and others were followers. This does not necessarily create conflict, but I know that when one of the interns constantly referred to their contributions to the company in a more arrogant way, I was slightly annoyed. I k...

Overall, I think that constructive criticism is important in the work place: it enables workers to complete the task assigned in the best way possible. Additionally, if managers or leaders do not specify the expectations for assignments, it makes it nearly impossible for employees to be able to complete the task to the best of their ability. Therefore, clear communication and expectations is a necessity for a productive collaborative environment. This past summer I had a remote internship. I was a data analyst, so I mainly dealt with organizing data and identifying trends in the successes and failures of the marketing team. Overall, I think I had a good experience. My boss set the expectations for what I should do very clearly, and whenever a chart or analysis powerpoint was not up to her expectation, I was notified immediately. I greatly appreciated this clear form of communication, and I respected her input. I knew that I had not taken part in similar activities before, so I listen...

Overall, I think the articles are trying to demonstrate that in general, human beings are caring towards each other. However, when competition increases, it may force people to not act in line with their values. When people start to think that helping others can ruin their chances of being successful, our reaction is to protect ourselves. I enjoyed reading the article about altruism, and I think its explanation of how being altruistic can benefit the economy, government, and general quality of life was very interesting and eye-opening. Gift exchange, the transfer of goods or services, is considered voluntary, yet it is expected. I think this idea ties into altruism, completing an act that benefits someone else without expecting anything in return. If it is voluntary, generally speaking, it is altruistic. For example, I have never seen a student not hold the door open for a student on crutches or try to pass a student on a wheelchair who is trying to get on a bus. Yes, when it is cold...

I think that when I was in high school and thinking about what to major in, I wanted to continue studying something that interested me. However, I feel that after attending high school in a relatively wealthy town in New England, there was a lot of pressure on what college people should attend. Throughout the application process, I know a lot of my peers were extremely stressed about attending the best possible school they could get into with regard to prestige. For me personally, I knew that I wanted to attend a state school, either UMass Amherst or the University of Illinois, because they were good schools, and my parents would be able to support me throughout the process with the in-state tuition. I had applied to some Ivies, but my parents made it clear that they would not be able to financially support me. I do not regret my choice. I think that for statistics and economics the University of Illinois has good rankings, a rigorous program, and is able to satisfy my needs without pa...

Although each blog post has a specific theme or prompt, I think that in general, except for the first post about my alias, they generally do address different aspects of working in a team or some sort of group. For example, the very first post about transaction costs in organizations, which is the cost required for organizations to make decisions in the most effective way. In class, we talked about Williamson's theory about transaction costs, and how organizations manage these costs through rules and regulations. I talked about how the organization Alpha Phi Omega engages with transaction costs by indirectly enforcing the importance of joining committees and contributing to the overall well-being of the fraternity. When people do not actively engage with the group, they lose out on some social aspects. In the next post about opportunism or taking advantage, I was able to directly tie my example of my high school cross-country coach prioritizing athletes who purchased shoes from his...

I think Illini Bucks would especially be used to reserve certain locations such as areas of a gym and places to study, prioritize office hours, and also, students would use them to register for courses. All of these reservations are completed on a first-come first-serve basis, but registration for courses is done in a certain way. Athletes get the first round to choose classes because the university does not want their classes to conflict with their competitions and practice. Although many non-athletes see this method as unfair, since athletes are able to take the better class times, in some ways, it makes sense. If professors are constantly required to move their exams and syllabus because of the athletes' conflicts, it is a burden on them. However, it is important to note that even though athletes get to choose their class times, they still have conflicting events with important exams and pieces of their classes. Therefore, I know that many students think that athletes should not...

I have attended college for three years now, and I feel that every time the professor mentions group project, my automatic reaction is to dread it. I feel that almost every time I work on a group project, the work is not divided evenly. Someone ends up doing more work, and someone benefits from the other person taking charge. When it comes to the final presentation or work, most projects I worked on ended up being fine, but there was still an unequal divide of work. However, when I was in LAS 122 freshman year, a class designed for James Scholars Students, I remember actually enjoying the project and having the work divided evenly. Additionally, as a member of Alpha Phi Omega, the service fraternity on campus, being on committees is usually quiet enjoyable and the work is divided evenly. When reflecting on group projects in my Spanish and economics class, I feel that collaborating in an effective way was hard. To start off, we were assigned to work with random people in ext...

When I think of opportunism, I generally think of people taking advantage of what lies in front of them. I think that our morals play a large role in our inability to completely take advantage of some opportunities. Even if morals do not stop some people, the fear of being judged based on how other people may see your choice of action also contributes. Basically, we all adhere to some basic societal norms which prevents us from fully taking advantage of some opportunities. The most basic example of this is finding a $100 bill in a busy city. When I was 10, I found a $100 bill on the ground in Chicago, and although I know I wanted to keep it, my mom immediately made me ask around if it was anyone’s and someone claimed it was theirs. I do not know if that was their money, but I would like to think that no one would take a $100 bill as their own. In my blog last week, I talked about how my high school cross-country coach owned a shoe store and prioritized runners who bought shoes from h...

When I was in high school, I was very involved with running. I ran varsity all four years for the cross-country, winter track, and spring track teams for my high school. With this, I it is safe to say that my life almost revolved around this organization. I decided when to do my homework, when to relax, when to go on family vacations, and what classes to take based on advice from my teammates and the general practice and meet schedules. Given what we discussed in class about transaction costs, I think the most important one I faced would be when purchasing shoes. Our coach owned Marathon Sports, which is known to help runners find the perfect fitting shoe; however, this comes at a steep price. Many people on our team would purchase shoes at outlet malls and other places, and they would eliminate the transaction cost: they did not pay a higher fee to ensure that the shoes they purchased were ideal for their general posture. Another important point with Marathon Sports is that our coach...

Before being assigned James Buchanan in class, I did not know who he was. After reading a bit about him, I learned that he was a very influential economist, especially with public policy, and he was awarded a Nobel Prize for his contributions. He attended school at the University of Virginia and later went to the University of Chicago for graduate school. Buchanan understood cost-benefit analysis and explained how costs are subjective to individuals, so it is nearly impossible to analyze costs and benefits for different people. His novel, Cost and Choice , thoroughly explains this concept, and is very well-known. His biggest contribution has to do with public choice. There are two levels: where the constitution is chosen, and the post constitutional level. He demonstrates that the first level is more important to think about the first level, which is seen as setting the rules of the game. He suggested that people should worry less about being political players in what is seen as the se...