Student Misconceptions or Employer Pessimism?

This survey indicates a lack of rational expectations in the labor market for new grads.  The results themselves are interesting.  But one wonders why they are so strong.  What gives?

Study finds big gaps between student and employer perceptions @insidehighered via kwout

A couple of pieces on Medicine and moral hazard

This is from today's Op-Ed page.  It is called How Medical Care Is Being Corrupted.  The issue is how doctors are compensated and if that impacts how they practice - prescribe medications, recommend treatments, etc.

This other one is about medical research, particularly the war on cancer.  It is called Grant System Leads Cancer Researchers to Play It Safe. It is quite intriguing and might give you an entirely different sense of what moral hazard means.

Airbnb and "Helping Industries"

I'm only about halfway with reading the blog posts for this week but I thought this piece tied in nicely to the posts as I've not yet read one that talks about somebody wanting to start their own business after they graduate.  Why is that?  Let's raise that question in class on Tuesday.

Start Helping the Helpers - NYTimes.com via kwout

Tirole Wins Nobel Prize in Economics

Here is a snip about the announcement from the NY Times.

Jean Tirole of France Wins Nobel Prize in Economics - NYTimes.com via kwout

And here is a photo of me holding the textbook by Tirole and his frequent co-author Laffont on Procurement and Regulation.  In the early 1990s, I taught out of that book in a graduate course on Regulation.

Opportunism and the News

Given that the next blog post is supposed to be about opportunism, I thought this piece from NPR apropos.  It is about scientists doing ALS research and how they've responded to a decline in funding across the board.  The answer seems to be ... not very well.

Patients Vulnerable When Cash-Strapped Scientists Cut Corners : Shots - Health News : NPR via kwout

Combating HRTP

Some of you may remember a brief discussion about why there might not be efficiency in organizations.  One explanation was participant impatience.  Then you will recall that HRTP is short for high rate of time preference.  For efficiency, people need to value the future more and not be so concerned with immediate reward.

This creates a linkage between economics and psychology.  The psychologists know how to train yourself to be more patient.  One of the heroes of that research is Walter Mischel.  He is famous for his experiments with marshmallows and young kids.  If you haven't heard about those, you'll enjoy reading the linked piece.

Learning How to Exert Self-Control - NYTimes.com via kwout

Do You Have A Mentor?

This is from a provocative piece about success factors in the labor market for recent grads.  Ergo the question in the title of this post.  If you do have a mentor, I believe the rest of the class would be curious about how you got one.  If you don't have a mentor, are you doing anything to make that happen?

It Takes a Mentor - NYTimes.com via kwout

CEO Pay - Market Determined or Rigged Game?

We may talk about CEO pay a little near the end of the course.  But it is a topic that fascinates and becomes a topic that is newsworthy from time to time.  So this recent paper that likened college football coaches to CEOs brought all of that out into the open again.

As I write this, the Illini have fallen behind Western Kentucky.  Speaking as a sports fan rather than as an economist ---- OUCH!

The Price of Glory - NYTimes.com via kwout

Moral Hazard and the S&L Crisis

While we will consider moral hazard even in the first class session, we will take a deeper look at it during the second half of the course.  Your textbook has a very nice example of the moral hazard entailed in making bank loans when the deposits are covered by Deposit Insurance provided by the Federal Government.  The piece linked below, illustrates the practical reality of the situation.

Lessons Not Learned - NYTimes.com via kwout