College
« Previous EntriesCollege Pricing
Monday, June 21st, 2010Ever wondered why college sticker prices are so high? I have. Part of the explanation is that universities price discriminate and the most palatable way to do so is to charge a high price and offer discounts based on ability and income. But how do universities choose the price that they do? When I was […]
Paradox of Choice
Sunday, November 22nd, 2009A friend of mine, an aspiring ecologist with a blog of his own, sent me a link to Barry Schwartz’s 2005 TED talk on the paradox of choice. Schwartz, a psychologist, has written a book with the same title that I have not read. The video is entertaining and thought-provoking. Schwartz argues that too much […]
Secret Menus
Thursday, September 24th, 2009As happy as I am with the buzz generated by my last post, I feel the need to update so new visitors are greeted with something a little more upbeat. A post about fast food and cable television (the keys to a good life) seemed to fit the bill. Tyler Cowen recently blogged about secret […]
Rape Statistics: 1 in 4?
Friday, September 11th, 2009My university recently hosted a forum on rape for female college students. They emphasized that rape is a serious issue on campus using statistics. Fact: 1 in 4 college women have either been raped or suffered attempted rape. At least that is what women’s centers at colleges around the United States claim. That’s scary high. Too […]
Lessons from My Laundromat
Wednesday, July 15th, 2009In the current hard economic times, most businesses have been lowering their prices. Burger King reduced the price of their daily specials from $4.50 to $3.99. Car companies are offering to forgive your monthly payments if you lose your job. Frito Lay is putting more chips in their bags for free. However, I’ve also noticed […]
When Signaling sends the Wrong Signal
Monday, June 22nd, 2009Google became the world’s most popular search engine by radically increasing the relevance of search results. It was able to do so by rewarding sites that received a lot of links from other sites. Links from popular sites were worth more than links from obscure sites. The popularity, or rank, of a site became known […]
My Question for Twitter’s Founder
Sunday, June 14th, 2009The Freakonomics blog periodically solicits questions from it’s readers to ask prominent and interesting people. Most recently, Biz Stone, the cofounder of Twitter and entrepreneur responsible for Blogger and Xanga was featured . I submitted a question that was included in the interview. Below is my question and his response: How do you consistently get […]
Diarrhea, Foreclosures and the American Dream
Saturday, November 22nd, 2008Interesting stories I came across this morning: Diarrhea kills more people than AIDS, tuberculosis, or malaria: According to the estimates of one sanitation specialist George cites, each of the 2.6 billion people who live without sanitation may ingest up to 10 grams of fecal matter a day. The consequence is often diarrhea, which is a […]
Voting is Rational, but People Don’t Vote Rationally
Thursday, November 20th, 2008I’m about a month later than most to ponder the workings of our democracy. But, given that a few elections are still up in the air, the topic is still somewhat timely. The book I learned the most from this year, was “The Myth of the Rational Voter” by Bryan Caplan, which I reviewed last […]
Spies…Everywhere
Monday, October 6th, 2008I’m talking about my students. I have 45 of them and I’m still learning their names and faces. They see me around campus and know who I am, but I don’t always recognize them. The other day I was tying my shoe in the library and I heard someone say “see you in class” before […]
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