John Hicks Econ 490 Fall 2019

I do believe that there themes from one post that tie into other posts throughout our blogs. Some of the concepts can be applied to many of the prompts, such as transaction costs. Transaction costs can be pointed out in our posts regarding a successful, high-performing team, for example. The transaction cost of getting to work with a close friend is that the ability to slack off or take on less work disappears, as the respect for the relationship trumps laziness/work aversion.  In these ways, there are many connections throughout all of our online work. A lot of the concepts each blog post touches on can be applied to subsequent posts in a manner that expands your thinking on it. For example, another connection can be seen in acting opportunistically in the dimension where Illinibucks exist. Are Illinibucks physical things that could be stolen? If there was a scenario in which your friend needed a class for graduation yet didn’t have enough Illinibucks to register early, could...

I consider myself a social creature, and thus teamwork is often enjoyable and fruitful for me. In a college setting most teamwork revolves around group projects. I find that I have the most success with group projects when I have a genuine connection with each and every member- this leads to an emotional bond that most people feel uncomfortable throwing away for the sake of laziness/not doing their work. One of my favorite group projects was one done in one of the first econ classes I’d ever taken; some lower level econ courses are required for a wide range of majors, so I had many real-life friends in this course as well.  The project was Excel heavy and full of necessary research, so we all had our own little portions to do. The project was meant to culminate in a giant paper that needed graphs, linear regressions, and data coupled with the writing portions (introduction, breaking down our model, the results, conclusions, etc.). These various tasks were delegated to each mem...

This was a fun hypothetical to consider. In Fall 2017 there were 47,826 students; almost 50,000 people in a concentrated area with limited resources often leads to a situation in which there is scarcity or long waits. When brainstorming potential uses for Illinibucks I found the most significant ones to be: mental health appointments (specifically at McKinley), class registration, and space/tables in study buildings (often Grainger, the UGL, Siebel, the Transportation Building, etc.).  Mental health appointments and the difficulty of being able to book one is something that personally affects me quite a lot. I’ve noticed that, as the years have passed (I’m a senior now), it’s gotten harder and harder to find availability. Even harder is finding an appointment within the timeframe of a month from calling. This is something I know to be extremely detrimental for many of my friends/peers who suffer from mental health issues, and thus I think it’s a prime candidate for Illinibucks...

Being a college student provides many chances to act in an unethically opportunistic manner. Classes are difficult and professors assign countless assignment, seemingly unaware of other classes their students are inevitably taking. This leads to working together, sharing documents, finding past assignments/exams online, etc.- all of which fall under the umbrella of cheating. To address the prompt in depth, I’ll explain one specific example of such a scenario. During my sophomore year of college, I enrolled in an upper level political science course. The professor had glowing reviews on RateMyProfessor- students mostly mentioned how lenient, kind, and sweet she was. Although I'm usually skeptical of the reviews on that website (I think scorned students and “teacher’s pet” student heavily populate those that write the reviews) they were enough to push me to sign up for her class.  The structure of her class was similar to others I’d taken: PowerPoint lectures, supplemental w...