Economics lectures

[Collin Li]

I had this idea the other day.

I'm thinking about a series of casual lectures intended for people who are concurrently taking an introductory microeconomics unit.

It would cover the basic application of economic analysis to real life situations, going over simple concepts such as "opportunity cost," and really grinding down the necessity of these concepts. It would be a good complement to those studying economics, and wanting to understand more about it.

I think a good example to start with in the lecture would be the case of "volunteer work."

Why do people do it? They don't get paid. But there are non-monetary benefits. And economics certainly realises that (important!). And I'd go through the benefits, and the costs. Then in that example, you could also explain opportunity costs - which is why the people listening are sitting here rather than volunteering, i.e.: "if volunteering is so good, why aren't you doing it? Probably there's an opportunity cost."

Heh... it would be interesting and a good experience I reckon. Who reckons it'd be a good idea?

[costargh]

I'm in.

[Collin Li]

We could try talk to our respective economics faculties and pioneer it.

Any ideas?

[costargh]

Not really adding anything new. But I like the idea of relating basic economic concepts to real life examples that ANYONE could relate to. That's what really gets people interested. Because they realise that everything around them is related to Economics; hence greater interest.

[AppleXY]

Hey Collin, is this for next year? If so, i'm also in lol

[Eriny]

Do you mean 'freakonomics'? (I'm not sure, I've never read much of it).

It would work well, I think. Trying to explain all human behaviour under one framework is difficult, and I'm sure the course would go through the limitations of how human behaviour is explained. E.g. in your example of volunteer work, you'd have to factor in that some people put down this kind of thing to just plain altruism. As in, the intent might deviate from a strict cost-benefit analysis. But then I guess you could argue that the joy one gets from doing good things is part of the cost-benefit analysis in itself, and that altruism does not necessarily need to exist to get 'good' things done. And this may not even matter at all if the outcome of a 'good' thing is the same, regardless. Some would say that this is a glib view, maybe would argue if someone gave you a present, is the present better if you know they did it just to make you happy than if they got you the present because they thought it would benefit them? Like giving your mother chocolates on her birthday because you know she'll give you some, for instance. But alas, I am rambling.

In any case, it'd be interesting and there is lots of room for interdisciplinary discourse (psychology and philosophy seem particularly related, you might even want to throw in some anthropology, because inevitably what one would value in their cost-benefit analysis would be influenced by their social context).

[Collin Li]

Hm.. I wouldn't explore that too much, but personal values certainly affect your cost-benefit analysis. So if you value 'doing good deeds to others,' then you'd gain utility from doing volunteer work and it'd be a positive count on your cost-benefit analysis.

I'd try to stay away from Freakonomics, but rather try to push the boundaries of economics, and show how economics fits extreme cases into its analysis without problems. Note that I'm not arguing that econometrics is perfect. Economics is, but the practice of it is not.