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John Hicks Econ 490 Fall 2019

I am a student in Professor Arvan's Econ 490 course, writing under the alias of a famous economist to protect my privacy.

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- September 09, 2019

This is probably the most genuinely fun component of a 400 level Econ course I've ever had the joy of participating in.

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Principal-Agent

- December 18, 2019

The triangular principal-agent model is an organizational relationship in which an agent has to act in accordance to the interests of two different principals. My mom works as a retail manager, and her job centers around this. Her two principals are the customer and the company she is employed by. For the customer, she must find a product that they are interested in purchasing. However, finding a “good deal” for the customer hurts the company, and thus is detrimental to maximizing her own profits (through commission) and her other principal, the company. This is especially true because commission is directly linked to selling products for their full retail value, with commission on discounted products also being disproportionally less valuable because less profit is made off these products. The department store she works at seeks to maximize profit by selling products that have low cost and high retail price. In a department store, the main products that satisfy these criteria are...

Punishment

- December 18, 2019

The relationship between performance and punishments is fragile. Too little punishment can often leave workers lax and inefficient, but too much punishment can make a worker apathetic. I personally believe that moderation in punishment is key, but most of the people I’ve met in positions of power wield their authority with an iron fist. When I think of excessive punishment, one individual always pops into my mind. It’s interesting because my initial impression of this individual was actually quite positive. It was only after interacting with him consistently in a professional setting that I grew to dislike his behavior. I met this individual K when he first decided to interview me with regards to an open position he had available in his team in a smaller startup. Upon first meeting him, I was impressed by both his scholastic achievements but also his overall demeanor. He talked a lot about how an internship under him was really about enriching myself and how he thought that I woul...

Conflict

- December 06, 2019

I’m sorry for how late this/many of my other posts are. The LSAT passed recently so I had been frantically panicking/studying for that. I am now catching up with all of my classes. When reading this prompt a specific (and frankly traumatic) event instantly came to mind. I was a 16-year old junior in high school and had been recently hired at Walgreens. The hierarchy at the store consisted of associates, assistant managers, and then the store manager. The store manager and I had a casual and pleasant relationship. At my particular store there were four assistant managers, the majority of which I got along with just fine. However, there was one particular woman- we’ll call her Rebecca- with whom I butted heads with quite a lot. Her general unkindness towards both customers and associates was off-putting to me, and I found it difficult to see her in a positive light. However, I recognized that she was my superior and thus I needed to be quiet, put my head down, and sim...