James Buchanan Econ 490 Fall 2019

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...