A Blog About Nothing http://www.blogaboutnothing.net Tue, 20 Jul 2010 15:39:04 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 The Best Abstract in an Ademic Paper in the History of Economics http://www.blogaboutnothing.net/2010/07/20/the-best-abstract-in-an-ademic-paper-in-the-history-of-economics/ http://www.blogaboutnothing.net/2010/07/20/the-best-abstract-in-an-ademic-paper-in-the-history-of-economics/#comments Tue, 20 Jul 2010 15:39:04 +0000 The Homo Economicus http://www.blogaboutnothing.net/?p=391 Please, see it for yourselves:

http://www.princeton.edu/~dixitak/home/Elaine.pdf

]]> Please, see it for yourselves:

http://www.princeton.edu/~dixitak/home/Elaine.pdf

]]> http://www.blogaboutnothing.net/2010/07/20/the-best-abstract-in-an-ademic-paper-in-the-history-of-economics/feed/ 0 Blogaboutnothing.net was hacked by Egyptian hackers! http://www.blogaboutnothing.net/2010/04/08/blogaboutnothing-net-was-hacked-by-egyptian-hackers/ http://www.blogaboutnothing.net/2010/04/08/blogaboutnothing-net-was-hacked-by-egyptian-hackers/#comments Thu, 08 Apr 2010 21:00:12 +0000 The Homo Economicus http://www.blogaboutnothing.net/?p=384 This was the homepage of the blog this morning:

]]> This was the homepage of the blog this morning:

]]> http://www.blogaboutnothing.net/2010/04/08/blogaboutnothing-net-was-hacked-by-egyptian-hackers/feed/ 3 The opportunity not to be a price taker! http://www.blogaboutnothing.net/2010/03/28/the-opportunity-not-to-be-a-price-taker/ http://www.blogaboutnothing.net/2010/03/28/the-opportunity-not-to-be-a-price-taker/#comments Sun, 28 Mar 2010 14:43:41 +0000 The Homo Economicus http://www.blogaboutnothing.net/?p=381 In economics a “price taker” is defined as a small individual or firm that is not able to affect the prices of goods individually.

We are price takers. Even if we go now to the local grocery store and one million tomatoes, the price of tomatoes in the market won’t be affected.

Not being a price taker [...]]]> In economics a “price taker” is defined as a small individual or firm that is not able to affect the prices of goods individually.

We are price takers. Even if we go now to the local grocery store and one million tomatoes, the price of tomatoes in the market won’t be affected.

Not being a price taker though makes you feel powerful, like a monopoly. On the other hand, drinking also makes you feel powerful. What if we put both of them together in one place? A bar in NYC will start selling drinks with a variable price that will change according to the demand in the pub. You can look at http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE62N51X20100325?feedType=RSS&feedName=oddlyEnoughNews&rpc=69 (courtesy of my friend Roy).

In this setting people will be affecting the price of the beer, scotch, vodka, etc. Prices going down would mean that there is no demand for that drink, creating incentives for people to drink more of those. I think this modus operantis is highly profitable for two reasons:

1) Depending on the elasticities of demand of people for some drinks, the bar can make a lot of money. Even if the most popular drink is, say, a mojito, and prices keep going up, some people might still decide to buy it because it is the most popular drink in the bar that night, and a marginal increase in price would not decrease demand as much.

2) This could solve the inventory problem! As soon as the unpopular drinks become cheaper, some people will drink those and then these extra bottles hanging around will be emptied at some point of the night.

It is worth to check out this place!

]]> http://www.blogaboutnothing.net/2010/03/28/the-opportunity-not-to-be-a-price-taker/feed/ 0 What information asymmetry? http://www.blogaboutnothing.net/2010/03/09/what-information-asymmetry/ http://www.blogaboutnothing.net/2010/03/09/what-information-asymmetry/#comments Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:43:42 +0000 The Homo Economicus http://www.blogaboutnothing.net/?p=379 I’ve been tweeting for a few days already in @tweetabtnothing. This have caused me to reflect on the way information is transmitted nowadays in the internet. Ten years ago, the problem of the search engines in the internet (do you remember Yahoo! and Altavista?) was not only having a good algorithm for the search but [...]]]> I’ve been tweeting for a few days already in @tweetabtnothing. This have caused me to reflect on the way information is transmitted nowadays in the internet. Ten years ago, the problem of the search engines in the internet (do you remember Yahoo! and Altavista?) was not only having a good algorithm for the search but also creating enough material to offer to the users. There was not a lot of (reliable) information running around.

Today, the amount of information in the web is so large that the big problem is not if the information exists, but it is about what is the best way to organize and find the information we are looking for given our time constraints. That is why sites like Tweeter or Google Reader become so popular: because they allow users to “pull” information from the websites that we are interested into to a specific centralized place in our screens, reducing the time that we spent going from one website to another.

Hence, today’s information asymmetry is less of an issue of not being able to find the information at all, but how efficient are we finding it in the limited time that we have to do so.

]]> http://www.blogaboutnothing.net/2010/03/09/what-information-asymmetry/feed/ 2 Interesting piece on the econo… http://www.blogaboutnothing.net/2010/03/09/interesting-piece-on-the-econo/ http://www.blogaboutnothing.net/2010/03/09/interesting-piece-on-the-econo/#comments Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:14:02 +0000 The Homo Economicus http://www.blogaboutnothing.net/2010/03/09/interesting-piece-on-the-econo/ Interesting piece on the economy of the West Bank: http://bit.ly/9MUmUF

]]> Interesting piece on the economy of the West Bank: http://bit.ly/9MUmUF

]]> http://www.blogaboutnothing.net/2010/03/09/interesting-piece-on-the-econo/feed/ 0 Amazing Ad About Israel http://www.blogaboutnothing.net/2010/03/08/amazing-ad-about-israel-http/ http://www.blogaboutnothing.net/2010/03/08/amazing-ad-about-israel-http/#comments Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:30:52 +0000 The Homo Economicus http://www.blogaboutnothing.net/2010/03/08/amazing-ad-about-israel-http/

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]]> http://www.blogaboutnothing.net/2010/03/08/amazing-ad-about-israel-http/feed/ 0 The financial crisis hits all … http://www.blogaboutnothing.net/2010/03/07/the-financial-crisis-hits-all/ http://www.blogaboutnothing.net/2010/03/07/the-financial-crisis-hits-all/#comments Sun, 07 Mar 2010 20:11:53 +0000 The Homo Economicus http://www.blogaboutnothing.net/2010/03/07/the-financial-crisis-hits-all/ The financial crisis hits all of us. Harvard decided to cut on the heating in the library to save some bucks.

]]> The financial crisis hits all of us. Harvard decided to cut on the heating in the library to save some bucks.

]]> http://www.blogaboutnothing.net/2010/03/07/the-financial-crisis-hits-all/feed/ 0 Is the widespread use of credi… http://www.blogaboutnothing.net/2010/03/07/is-the-widespread-use-of-credi/ http://www.blogaboutnothing.net/2010/03/07/is-the-widespread-use-of-credi/#comments Sun, 07 Mar 2010 13:58:46 +0000 The Homo Economicus http://www.blogaboutnothing.net/2010/03/07/is-the-widespread-use-of-credi/ Is the widespread use of credit cards (and holding less cash in your pockets) affecting homeless people and beggars who ask for change?

]]> Is the widespread use of credit cards (and holding less cash in your pockets) affecting homeless people and beggars who ask for change?

]]> http://www.blogaboutnothing.net/2010/03/07/is-the-widespread-use-of-credi/feed/ 0 Why is there always a positive… http://www.blogaboutnothing.net/2010/03/06/why-is-there-always-a-positive/ http://www.blogaboutnothing.net/2010/03/06/why-is-there-always-a-positive/#comments Sat, 06 Mar 2010 20:24:03 +0000 The Homo Economicus http://www.blogaboutnothing.net/2010/03/06/why-is-there-always-a-positive/ Why is there always a positive (significant) correlation between the temperature outside and the amount of work we have to do on weekends?

]]> Why is there always a positive (significant) correlation between the temperature outside and the amount of work we have to do on weekends?

]]> http://www.blogaboutnothing.net/2010/03/06/why-is-there-always-a-positive/feed/ 0 These are some thieves that kn… http://www.blogaboutnothing.net/2010/03/06/these-are-some-thieves-that-kn/ http://www.blogaboutnothing.net/2010/03/06/these-are-some-thieves-that-kn/#comments Sat, 06 Mar 2010 17:38:01 +0000 The Homo Economicus http://www.blogaboutnothing.net/2010/03/06/these-are-some-thieves-that-kn/ These are some thieves that know about cost-effectiveness analysis: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5327965,00.html

]]> These are some thieves that know about cost-effectiveness analysis: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5327965,00.html

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