DENNIS PLOTT
  • Home
  • Teaching
    • Current Courses
    • Course Outlines >
      • Principles of Microeconomics >
        • Introduction to Economics
        • Supply & Demand
        • Elasticity
        • Household Behavior
        • Industrial Organization
        • Externalities, Common Resources, Public Goods
        • Asymmetric Information
        • Poverty and Economic Inequality
        • International Economics
        • Labor Economics
      • Principles of Macroeconomics
    • Reviews
    • Past Courses
  • Economics Resources
    • Articles, Videos, and Podcasts
    • Cartoons, Memes, and Jokes
    • Books & Links
  • LUC Chess
    • Free Chess Resources
    • Classic Games to Know
    • Advice for Chess Improvement
The articles posted here are intended to be interesting, highlighting various economic and statistical concepts in the real world with, hopefully, balanced coverage. Although intended to be worthwhile, many of the articles are not without flaws. Students can benefit from not only being exposed to amusing applications but also benefit from learning to apply what they have learned in a critical manner.

  1. American Economic Association, Real-world economics
    1. Use AEA materials to illustrate concepts in economics

General

  1. Newsweek, "A Cult of Ignorance", by Isaac Asimov, 21 January 1980, p. 19.
  2. Farnam Street, "The Feynman Technique: The Best Way to Learn Anything"
  3. The Atlantic, "Five Features of Better Arguments", by Friedersdorf, 26 June 2018
  4. Merrimack College, "What Famous People Have a Degree in Economics?"
  5. "The Feeling of Power" by Isaac Asimov
  6. The Atlantic, "The Coddling of the American Mind", by Lukianoff and Haidt, 11 August 2015
  7. Vonnegut, ""Harrison Bergeron", 1961
  8. Aesop, "The Man, the Boy, and the Donkey"
  9. BestLife, "20 Most Ridiculous College Courses You Won’t Believe Are Real", by Crow, 1 May 2018
  10. The New York Times, "Economics Isn't Dismal. It’s Useful.", by Wolfers, 26 July 2019
  11. The Washington Post, "Think you’re anonymous online? A third of popular websites are ‘fingerprinting’ you.", by Fowler, 31 Oct. 2019

Logical Fallacies

  1. The New York Times Magazine, "Straw-Man Issue", by Safire, 2 June 2009

Teaching

  1. William E. Becker, 1997. "Teaching Economics to Undergraduates", Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 35 (3), pages 1347-1373, September.
    1. Abstract:  Economists are singled out for their lack of interest in teaching. Yet, in teaching economics to undergraduates, the work of some economists is innovative and recognized, although not necessarily appreciated by those who are missing the current realities in higher education. This article presents evidence on the teaching and learning of economics at the undergraduate level. It describes what economists are doing in classrooms, and discusses the consequences of their failure to do more. It reviews what research offers teachers and considers alternative measures of educational outputs. Consideration is given to nonlecture teaching methods that are more prevalent in other disciplines.
  2. Donald N. McCloskey, 1992. "Other Things Equal: The Natural", Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 18 (2), pages 237, Spring.
  3. The Atlantic, "The Myth of 'Learning Styles'", by Khazan, 11 April 2018

Analytical Tools

  1. Business Insider, "11 Personal Finance Equations You Need To Know", by Krasny and Floro, 25 July 2012

General Economics

Model Building and Counterfactuals

  1. Renee Courtois, 2010. "Jargon Alert : Counterfactual", Econ Focus, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, issue 1Q, pages 1-8.
  2. Esther Duflo's TED Talk: "Social Experiments to Fight Poverty"
  3. Ouliaris, "What Are Economic Models?", Finance & Development, June 2011
  4. "Economic Models: Big Questions and Big Numbers", The Economist, 13 July 2006
  5. Bloomberg, "Why Economics Has Trouble With the Big Problems", by Smith, 19 December 2018
  6. The New Republic, "The Tyranny of Economists", by Kaiser-Schatzlein, 30 September 2019

Opportunity Cost & Trade-Offs

  1. Eric Nielsen, 2004. "Jargon Alert : Opportunity Cost", Econ Focus, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Fall, pages 1-6.
  2. Slate, "Time Is Money", by Oster, 6 February 2013
  3. The New York Times, "The Opportunity Cost of Economics Education", by Frank, 1 September 2005
  4. Forbes, "The Opportunity Cost Of Marketing", by Silva, 26 July 2017
  5. HuffPost, "Understanding Opportunity Cost: How $200 Sneakers Could Cost You $75,000", by Marquit, 9 June 2016
  6. The Onion, "5-Year-Old Admits It Pretty Messed Up Spider-Man Visiting His Birthday Party When He Could Be Out Saving Lives", 29 August 2018
  7. CityLab, "Housing Can’t Be Both Affordable and a Good Investment", by Hertz, 19 November 2018

Marginal Analysis, Sunk Costs, and Diminishing Returns

  1. Eric Nielsen, 2005. "Jargon Alert : Sunk Cost", Econ Focus, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Winter, pages 1-6.
  2. Forbes, "Law Of Diminishing Returns Hits Social Media Companies", by Gerber, 2 April 2014
  3. Seekiing Alpha, "The Law Of Diminishing Returns And How It Relates To Investing", by Santos, 10 March 2015
  4. Business Insider, "The Law of Diminishing Returns", by Mercenary Trader, 13 December 2012
  5. NPR Planet Money, "The Diamond-Water Paradox", 25 July 2018, (Audio)
  6. Los Angeles Times, "Environmentally Minded Californians Love to Recycle — but It's No Longer Doing Any Good", by Skelton, 9 July 2018
  7. BBC, "The Trick to Learning When to Cut Your Losses", by Grant, 17 September 2018
  8. Harvard Business Review, "When to Stick with Something — and When to Quit", by Spicer, 28 September 2018
  9. The Atlantic, "Science Is Getting Less Bang for Its Buck", by Collison and Nielsen, 16 November 2018
  10. Reuters, "Harvesting in a Trade War: U.S. Crops Rot as Storage Costs Soar", by Weinraub, and Huffstutter, 21 November 2018
  11. Sofis, M. J., Lemley, S. M., Budney, A. J., Stanger, C., & Jarmolowicz, D. P. (2019). Persisting on the past: Cross-sectional and prospective associations between sunk cost propensity and cannabis use. Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology. Advance online publication.
  12. Psychology Today, "The Best Time to Plant a Tree Was 20 Years Ago, No Matter", by Smith, 14 April 2015

Incentives

  1. Economics Amplified (Podcast/Video Series from the Becker Friedman Institute)
    1. "Discussion Section: Understanding Incentives, Part 1, featuring Steven Levitt", 2018
    2. "Discussion Section: Understanding Incentives, Part 2, featuring Steven Levitt", 2018
  2. The Washington Post, "In the Era of Spellcheck and Auto-Correct, Does It Matter that My Son Can't Spell?", by Denn, 29 January 2019
  3. The Japan Times, "Japan enacts legislation making preschool education free in effort to boost low fertility rate", 10 May 2019
  4. The New York Times, "Economic Incentives Don’t Always Do What We Want Them To", by Duflo and Banerjee, 26 October 2019

Secondary Effects

  1. The New York Times, "Palm Oil Was Supposed to Help Save the Planet. Instead It Unleashed a Catastrophe.", by Lustgarten, 20 November 2018
  2. Chicago Tribune, "Domestic violence victims face risk of being attacked again following Cook County reforms, a Tribune investigation found", by Jackson and Buckley, 2 May 2019
  3. Los Angeles Magazine, "Crystals Might Be Good for Your Aura. But Buying Them Could Be Bad Karma", by Braslow, 28 August 2019

Markets

  1. The Washington Post, "Kidnapping for Ransom Works Like a Market. How It Is Organized Is Surprising.", by Shortland, 13 Dec. 2016
  2. The Guardian, "The Business of Kidnapping: Inside the Secret World of Hostage Negotiation ", by Simon, 25 January 2019
  3. Daily Beast, "$2.95 Million Baby T. Rex Goes on Sale on eBay, Sparking Paleontologist Rage", 15 April 2019
  4. The Guardian, "From pecan pralines to 'dots' as currency: how the prison economy works", by Davies, 30 August 2019
  5. iHeartRadio, "The 1975 And Billie Eilish Help Cassette Sales See A 15-Year High", by Nattress, 31 July 2019
  6. "Sell Your Soul! Economics for Children" (t-shirt) by Steven Rhodes
  7. The Outline, "The dangerously cheesy collectible Cheetos market", by Danovich, 9 October 2019
  8. CNN Business, "Nestlé launches luxury KitKat bars — but they're not cheap", by Picheta, 24 September 2019
  9. CNBC, "Twinkies cereal is now in the works", by Raimonde, 13 November 2019
  10. UPI, "Hotel room costs $1, but it's livestreamed at all times", by Hooper, 20 November 2019
  11. The Washington Post, "New Zealand orders more than 1,290 square feet of human skin for badly burned volcano victims", by O'Grady, 11 December 2019
  12. Battlefield Vegas, "Crush A Car With a Tank!"
  13. The Wall Street Journal, "Co-Parenting Sites Skip Love and Marriage, Go Right to the Baby Carriage", by Jargon, 7 January 2020
  14. CBC, "Vancouver's drug-dispensing machine: Why it exists and how it works", by Watson, 17 January 2020
  15. Reuters, "Iranian factory makes U.S. and Israeli flags to burn", 29 January 2020
  16. The Asahi Shimbun, "Need a loo fast? Book a ‘mobile toilet’ trailer on your smartphone", by Yoshikatsu Nakaiima, 26 January 2020
  17. San Antonio Zoo, "Name a Cockroach or a Rodent after Your Ex for Valentine's Day!"

International Economics

  1. The New York Times, "Thinking About a Trade War (Very Wonkish)", by Krugman, 17 June 2018
  2. NPR Planet Money, "Unraveling The Mystery Behind International Shipping Rates", (Audio)
  3. NPR Planet Money, "What A Tariff Looks Like", (Audio)
  4. NPR Planet Money, "A Brief History of Tariffs", 20 March 2018, (Audio)
  5. NPR Planet Money, "Episode 833: Worst. Tariffs. Ever.", 30 March 2018, (Audio)
  6. The Guardian, "Theresa May's Brexit Deal: Everything You Need to Know", by Henley, 15 November 2018
  7. Coloradoan, "The Price You'll Pay for a Cup of Coffee Around the World", by Byrnes, 2 March 2019
  8. Forbes, "Where Tariffs Are Highest And Lowest Around The World [Infographic]", by McCarthy, 23 March 2018
  9. DW, "African Leaders Launch Landmark 55-Nation Trade Zone", 7 July 2019

Labor Economics

  1. Politico, "The Future of Work, a History", by Baker, January/February 2018
  2. Wired, "Online Courses Don't Work, but Education Can Still Be Disrupted", by Frenkel, 28 January 2018
  3. The Atlantic, "Walmart's Future Workforce: Robots and Freelancers", by Merrick, 4 April 2018
  4. The Washington Post, "A Record Number of Folks Age 85 and Older Are Working. Here's What They're Doing.", by Van Dam, 5 July 2018
  5. Politico, "Betsy DeVos' Bet on Boot Camps",  by Stratford, 16 January 2019
  6. The Guardian, "Post-Work: The Radical Idea of a World Without Jobs", by Beckett, 19 January 2019
  7. USA Today, "Tight labor market allows more job seekers to call the shots", Davidson, 28 February 2017
  8. Marketplace, "4 ways a tight labor market affects hiring", by Adams and Mills, 2 March 2018
  9. CBS, "In tight job market, a program puts ex-convicts to work — and keeps them there", by Cerullo, 27 March 2019
  10. Business Insider, "A 25-year-old YouTuber quit her job and now makes 6 figures recording herself eating, and it's a trend more and more influencers are cashing in on", by Hoffower, 10 April 2019
  11. Bloomberg, "Big Money, No Debt: The Blunt New Pitch for Blue-Collar Workers", by Sasso, 13 April 2019
  12. Slate, "The Future of Unions Is White-Collar", by Schulte, 12 April 2019
  13. The New York Times, "A New Recruitment Tool for Construction: The Joystick", by Bailey, 16 April 2019
  14. The New York Times, "I Found Work on an Amazon Website. I Made 97 Cents an Hour.", by Newman, 15 November 2019

Minimum Wage

  1. The New York Times, "San Francisco Restaurants Can’t Afford Waiters. So They’re Putting Diners to Work.", by Badger, 25 June 2018
  2. Amanda Y. Agan & Michael D. Makowsky, 2018. "The Minimum Wage, EITC, and Criminal Recidivism," NBER Working Papers 25116, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  3. Zachary S. Fone & Joseph J. Sabia & Resul Cesur, 2019. "Do Minimum Wage Increases Reduce Crime?," NBER Working Papers 25647, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    1. Las Vegas Review-Journal, "Study finds that large minimum wage hikes boost the property crime rate", 8 April 2019
  4. EconLib, "Hidden Costs of the Minimum Wage", by Henderson
  5. Forbes, "President Trump Visits El Centro, California, An Area Hard-Hit By California's Minimum Wage Law", by DeVore, 4 April 2019
  6. Luca and Luca, "Survival of the Fittest: The Impact of the Minimum Wage on Firm Exit", NBER Working Paper No. 25806, May 2019
  7. UCLA Anderson Review, "Through the Minimum Wage Looking Glass: Economic Consensus Unrealized", by Gill, 3 October 2018

Universal Basic Income (UBI)

  1. Bloomberg, "In Finland, Money Can Buy You Happiness", by Bershidsky, 9 February 2019
    1. HuffPost, "Finland Gave People $640 A Month, No Strings Attached. Here’s What Happened.", by Paddison, 8 February 2019
  2. Wired, "The Paradox of Universal Basic Income", by Ito, 29 March 2018
  3. Dissent, "The False Promise of Universal Basic Income", by Battistoni, 2017 Spring
  4. The Washington Post, "$1,000 a month, no strings attached", by Samuels, 31 August 2019
  5. Jacobin, "Andrew Yang and the Failson Mystique", by Amber A'Lee Frost, 18 September 2019
  6. Freakonomics Radio, "Is the World Ready for a Guaranteed Basic Income? (Ep. 242)", by Dubner, 13 April 2016
  7. Longreads, "What Should Universal Basic Income Look Like?", by Gershon, September 2019
  8. The Economist, "The Economist Explains: Universal Basic Incomes", by R.A., 6 June 2016

Pay Gap

  1. NPR Planet Money, "Mind the Gap", 9 April 2018, (Audio)
  2. The Washington Post, "Citigroup is revealing pay gap data most companies don't want to share", by McGregor, 16 January 2019
  3. The Washington Post, "How new pay gap disclosures in Britain could push companies to promote women", by McGregor, 4 April 2018
  4. ABC, "Blind recruitment trial to boost gender equality making things worse, study reveals", by Belot, 29 June 2017

Human Capital vs. Signaling

  1. Inside Higher Ed, "In Norway, Student Loans for Astrology", by Matthews, 28 March 2019
  2. Income-Sharing
    1. The Economist, "Income-Share Agreements Are a Novel Way to Pay Tuition Fees", 19 July 2018
    2. The New York Times, "No Tuition, but You Pay a Percentage of Your Income (If You Find a Job)", by Sorkin, 8 January 2019
    3. Bloomberg, "How Much Is Your Education Worth? Depends How Much You Make", by Cowen, 4 April 2019
  3. NBC, "Fake Doctor Duped Hospitals, Universities, AMA", by Marchione, 12 December 2010
  4. Weiss, Andrew. 1995. "Human Capital vs. Signalling Explanations of Wages." Journal of Economic Perspectives, 9 (4): 133-154.

AI & Technology

  1. The Telegraph, "Security Robot 'Drowns Itself' in Office Fountain", by Titcomb, 18 July 2017
  2. Wired, "Can AI Be a Fair Judge in Court? Estonia Thinks So", by Niler, 25 March 2019
  3. The Wall Street Journal, "Walmart Is Rolling Out the Robots", by Nassauer and Cutter, 9 April 2019
  4. Nature, "AI pioneer: ‘The dangers of abuse are very real’", by Castelvecchi, 4 April 2019
  5. ESPN, "Inside the Tech Experiment that Wants to Change Football Forever", by Evans, 10 April 2019
  6. Reuters, "Exclusive: Amazon rolls out machines that pack orders and replace jobs", by Dastin, 13 May 2019
  7. Cosmopolitan, "Is It Possible to Stop a Mass Shooting Before It Happens?", by Stanley, 7 August 2019
    1. Wikipedia, "The Minority Report" by Philip K. Dick (1956)
    2. Elementary (TV show), Season 7
    3. Gizmodo, "The Plan to Use Fitbit Data to Stop Mass Shootings Is One of the Scariest Proposals Yet", by Ehrenkranz, 30 August 2019
  8. CNBC, "Panera is losing nearly 100% of its workers every year as fast-food turnover crisis worsens", by Rosenbaum, 29 Aug. 2019

CEO Pay

  1. The Atlantic, "How Companies Actually Decide What to Pay CEOs", by Clifford, 14 June 2017
  2. Fortune, "Here’s why you should care about how CEOs get paid", by Bloxham, 20 October 2015
  3. CNBC, "Why corporate CEO pay is so high, and going higher", by Mullaney, 19 May 2015
  4. CNBC, "CEOs make $15.6 million on average—here’s how much their pay has increased compared to yours over the year", by Umoh, 22 January 2018

Macroeconomics

Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

  1. The Economist, "National Accounts: Sex, Drugs and GDP", 31 May 2014
    1. The New York Times, "Sex, Drugs and G.D.P.", by Hakim, 16 June 2014
  2. Perry, "If New York Is Spain and California Brazil, What Is Texas?", Newsweek, 22 June 2015  
  3. NPR Planet Money, "GDP, OMG!", 27 July 2018, (Audio)
  4. The New York Times, "Alternatives to the G.D.P.", by Rampell, 30 October 2008
  5. Landefeld, J. Steven, Eugene P. Seskin, and Barbara M. Fraumeni. 2008. "Taking the Pulse of the Economy: Measuring GDP." Journal of Economic Perspectives, 22 (2): 193-216.

Inflation

  1. Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, "PCE and CPI Inflation: What’s the Difference?", by Haubrich and Millington, 17 April 2014
  2. Dr. Econ, "What Is 'Core Inflation'?", Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, October 2004
  3. NPR Planet Money, "Inflation Target Acquired", 30 April 2018, (Audio)

Hyperinflation

  1. Venezuela
    1. Forbes, "The Path To Hyperinflation: What Happened To Venezuela?", by Friesen, 7 August 2018 
    2. Business Insider, "10 Pictures Reveal the Huge Amounts of Cash Venezuelans Need to buy Everyday Things", by Selby-Green, 20 August 2018
    3. PRI, "What's It Like under 1,000 Percent Inflation? Venezuela Could Be about to Find Out.", by Leff, 26 January 2016

Unemployment

  1. The Washington Post, "Why Even a 3.9% Unemployment Rate Might Not Be 'Full': QuickTake", by Crook, 4 May 2018
  2. Bloomberg, "Quicktake: Full Employment", by Crook, 6 July 2018

The Business Cycle

  1. The New York Times, "The Most Important Least-Noticed Economic Event of the Decade", by Irwin, 29 September 2018
  2. The Washington Post, "The Business Cycle, RIP?", by Samuelson, 29 June 2014
  3. NPR, "What Just Happened Also Occurred Before The Last 7 U.S. Recessions. Reason To Worry?", by Allyn and Martin, 30 June 2019
  4. The Week, "The forgotten recession that irrevocably damaged the American economy", by Spross, 18 April 2016

Financial Markets: Stocks & Bonds

  1. Twitter, "4,000 year-old bond", from Isobel Finkel (@is_fink)
  2. U.S. News & World Report, "Bond Basics: Price and Yield", by Marquit, 8 August 2013
  3. Bloomberg BusinessWeek, "This Texas Finance Professor Sifts Data for Signs of Rigged Markets", by Robinson and Baker, 12 October 2018
  4. Los Angeles Times, "International investors dance to the tune of Jamaica’s reggae-loving central bankers", by Donaldson, 19 April 2019

Government & Fiscal Policy

  1. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, "Policy Basics: Deficits, Debt, and Interest", 21 May 2018
  2. The Atlantic, "Structural Versus Cyclical Deficits", by McArdle, 24 November 2009

Taxes

  1. The New York Times, "Happy ‘National Jealousy Day’! Finland Bares Its Citizens’ Taxes", by Barry, 1 November 2018
  2. The New York Times, "Everyone’s Income Taxes Should Be Public", by Applebaum, 13 April 2019
  3. Illinois Road and Transporation Builders Association, "Where Does Your Gas Tax Go?"

Wealth Tax

  1. The New York Times, "Wealth Taxes: A Future Battleground", by Cowen, 20 July 2013
  2. CNBC, "Thousands of French Households Taxed Over 100%", by Ellyatt, 20 May 2013
  3. The New York Times, "For Millionaire Immigrants, a Global Welcome Mat", by Frank, 25 February 2017

Amazon's Taxes

  1. Snopes, "Did Amazon Pay No Federal Income Taxes in 2017?", by Kasprak, 26 September 2018
  2. Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), "Amazon in Its Prime: Doubles Profits, Pays $0 in Federal Income Taxes", by Gardner, 13 February 2019

Social Security & Medicare

  1. BBC, "'Remarkable' Decline in Fertility Rates", by Gallagher, 9 November 2018
  2. The Washington Post, "The Demographic Time Bomb that Could Hit America", by Rampell, 31 December 2018
  3. BBC, "Why Some Japanese Pensioners Want to Go to Jail", 31 January 2019
  4. New York Daily News, "Medicare inflation results in an obscene example of government waste", 15 January 2014

Debt & Deficits

  1. The Moscow Times, "Russia's Net Public Debt Falls to Zero", by Aris, 11 September 2019

Money, Banking, Monetary Policy, and Interest Rates

  1. The Washington Post, "Who Is Jerome Powell, Trump's Pick for the Nation's Most Powerful Economic Position?", by Long, 2 November 2017
  2. Brookings, "The Hutchins Center Explains: How the Fed Will Raise Interest Rates", by Wessel and Sastry, 10 April 2015
  3. BBC, "Burger King Launches WhopperCoin Crypto-Cash in Russia", 29 August 2017
  4. Taipei Times, "Venezuela's Worthless Bills Turned into Art, Handbags", by Bermudez, 11 February 2018
  5. The Washington Post, "Prime Rate Is Raised to a Record 21%", by Berry, 17 December 1980
  6. FRBSF Economic Letter, "Did Quantitative Easing by the Bank of Japan 'Work'?", by Spiegel, 20 October 2006
  7. ECB, "How Quantitative Easing Works"

Digital Curreny (Bitcoin) and Blockchain

  1. Investopedia, "Few Reporting Bitcoin Holdings on Taxes: Credit Karma", by Reiff, 14 April 2018
  2. Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Open Vault Blog, "Three Ways Bitcoin Is Like Regular Currency", 25 April 2018
  3. The New York Times, "Coinbase: The Heart of the Bitcoin Frenzy", by Popper, 6 December 2017
  4. MIT Technology Review, "Will People Ditch Cash for Cryptocurrency? Japan is about to Find Out", by Orcutt, 22 January 2019
  5. South China Morning Post, "JPMorgan estimates bitcoin’s fair value at US$2,400, to the dismay and disagreement of digital currency miners everywhere", by Lee, 21 February 2019

Central Bank Independence

  1. Bloomberg, "All the Ways Trump Can (And Can't) Influence Powell's Fed Policy", 20 July 2018, by Smialek  
  2. The Washington Post, "Central Bank Independence", 19 July 2018, by Cannon
  3. WBUR, Here & Now, "Central Banks Have Become Too Powerful, Former Banker Says", 25 May 2018

Microeconomics

Supply & Demand

  1. Fortune, "Americans' Coffee Guzzling Is Pushing Bean Prices Higher", by Lorenzetti, 1 July 2016
  2. The Economist, "Drug Policy: Supply and Demand",  2 June 2011
  3. Slate, "It’s OK To Eat Quinoa", by LeVaux, 25 January 2013
    1. The New York Times, "Quinoa's Global Success Creates Quandary at Home", by Romero and Shahriari, 19 March 2011
  4. The New York Times, "Supply, Demand and Marriage", by Frank, 6 August 2011
  5. The New York Times, "The Risks of Cheap Water", by Porter, 14 October 2014
  6. Business Insider, "Someone Just Paid Over $600,000 for a Parking Spot in Hong Kong", by Cole, 15 June 2017
  7. The Economist, "How Chicken Became the Rich World's Most Popular Meat", by Colchester and Greenwood, 19 January 2019
  8. Los Angeles Times, "This Typewriter Repairman Was Told Computers Were King. Twenty Years Later, He's Still in Business", by Ormseth, 6 February 2019
  9. The Guardian, "'Drinkable' Potato Chips: the Products Keeping Your Phone Grease-Free", by Cantor, 6 February 2019
  10. CBS, "This Zoo Will Name a Cockroach after Your Ex, then Feed it to a Meerkat on Valentine's Day", by Lewis, 7 February 2019
  11. Overture, "The Slippery Slopes of the World Sand Shortage", by Albarazi
  12. CNBC, "Low gas prices dent demand for fuel-efficient cars", by Eisenstein, 14 November 2014

Elasticity

  1. Barron's, "Apple's Pricey iPhone X Will Turn off A Lot of Users, Make Piles of Money, Says Maxim", by Ray, 14 September 2017
  2. Pacific Standard, "Why Coffee Shortages Won't Change the Price of Your Frappuccino", by Chayka, 20 July 2014
  3. Twin Cities Pioneer Press, "Real World Economics: Rising Egg Prices Provide Lesson in Markets' Elasticity", by Lotterman, 13 June 2015
  4. The New York Times Magazine, "Why Is Turkey Cheaper When Demand Is Higher?", by Rampell, 19 November 2013
  5. Bloomberg, "What Americans Will—and Won’t—Pay for Avocados, in One Chart", by Stock, 12 September 2017
  6. Forbes, "Super Bowl XLVIII Pricing: A Lesson In Demand Elasticity", by Rishe, 19 September 2013
  7. Harvard Business Review, "A Refresher on Price Elasticity", by Gallo, 21 August 2015
  8. Forbes, "Big Tobacco Takes Its Last Drag As Economic Change Looms", by The Street, 6 September 2013
  9. Aaron Steelman, 2004. "Jargon Alert : Elasticity", Econ Focus, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Summer, pages 1-6.
  10. Forbes, "The End of Elastic Oil", by Konrad, 26 January 2012

Market Failures, Government Intervention, and Bureacracy

  1. Forbes, "India's Price Ceiling On Uber Rides Hurts Riders, Drivers And The Economy", by Hartley, 31 May 2016
  2. USA Today, "Yankees, StubHub Strike Deal, Set Resale and Price Floor", by Associated Press, 27 June 2016
  3. BBC, "Nutella 'Riots' Spread across French Supermarkets", 26 January 2018
  4. Economics Amplified (Podcast/Video Series from the Becker Friedman Institute)
    1. "Soda Taxes and Soda Prices: The Case of Mexico", 2015
  5. CBS Chicago, "How Bad Is Chicago’s Cab Market? Plunging Taxi Medallion Prices Tell The Tale",  by Puccinelli, 13 April 2017
  6. The New Yorker, "The Airbnb Invasion of Barcelona", by Mead, 22 April 2019
  7. Inside Higher Ed, "University Will Pay Sculptor to Move Anti-Trump Art", by Jaschik, 6 May 2019
  8. Chalfin, et al., "Reducing Crime Through Environmental Design: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment of Street Lighting in New York City", NBER Working Paper No. 25798, May 2019
  9. Mission Local, "Class for your ass: Haney wants probe, audit of $1.7M SF restroom", by Eskenazi, 26 October 2022
  10. Slate, "A Crappy Process in San Francisco", by Grabar, 28 October 2022

Rent Control (and realted issues)

  1. Econlib, "Rent Control", by Block
  2. The New York Times, "Titans of Real Estate in ‘Shock’ Over New York Rent Law Deal", by Goodman, Wang, and Ferré-Sadurní, 12 June 2019
    1. The New York Times, "Reckonings; A Rent Affair", by Krugman, 7 June 2000 
    2. "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." - George Santayana in The Life of Reason (1905)
  3. Chicago Magazine, "The Candidates Agree on Most Issues. Rent Control Isn’t One of Them.", by McClelland, 13 March 2019
  4. CBS (SF Bay Area), "California May Soon Pass Statewide Rent Control Bill", by Lin, 31 August 2019
  5. The New York Times, "Why Rent Control Is a Lightning Rod", by Dougherty, 12 October 2018
  6. Time, "Rent Control Isn't Unconstiutional, It's Necessary", by Cohen, 19 March 2012
  7. Marginal Revolution (blog), "Rent Control in Stockholm", by Tabarrok, 24 July 2015
  8. The Urbanist, "The Case for Rent Control", by Trumm, 5 August 2019
  9. YouTube, "The Rent is Too Damn High!"
    1. "The Rent Is Too Damn High Party is a political party, primarily active in the state of New York, that has nominated candidates for mayor of New York City in 2005 and 2009, and for governor and senator in 2010."
  10. Freakonomics Radio, "Why Rent Control Doesn’t Work", by Dubner, 3 April 2019
  11. Glaeser, Edward, L., and Erzo F. P. Luttmer. 2003. "The Misallocation of Housing Under Rent Control." American Economic Review, 93 (4): 1027-1046.
  12. The Economist, "Progressives for Regression: Democrats Clamour Again for Rent Control", 19 September 2019
  13. Brookings, "What does economic evidence tell us about the effects of rent control?", by Diamond, 18 October 2018
  14. YouTube, Rent: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
  15. The Wall Street Journal, "Yes, There’s a Housing Crisis. No, You Can’t Build Here", by Ford, 3 March 2023
  16. NPR, "The Evidence Against Rent Control", by Rosalsky, 29 March 2019
  17. The New York Times, "Oregon to Become First State to Impose Statewide Rent Control", by Zaveri, 26 February 2019
  18. NPR, "Oregon Set To Pass The First Statewide Rent Control Bill", by Ingber, 27 February 2019
  19. NPR, "Oregon's Experiment In Statewide Rent Control", by Dake, 30 March 2019

Consumer Behavior

  1. The Atlantic, "Instagram’s Wannabe-Stars Are Driving Luxury Hotels Crazy", by Lorenz, 13 June 2018
  2. Business Insider, "People Bought $38 'Hot Dog Water' Said to Support Weight Loss", by Warren, 22 June 2018
  3. Vox, "Stores use these tricks to get you to spend money. Don’t fall for it.", by Lieber, 9 November 2018
  4. The Boston Globe, "Why Didn't the Panera Cares Social Experiment Pay Off?", by Reyes, 7 February 2019
    1. Chicago Tribune, "Panera Is Ending Its Pay-What-You-Want Experiment, Will Close Last Such Store", by Patton, 5 February 2019

Asymmetric Information

  1. The New York Times, "New Gene Tests Pose a Threat to Insurers", by Kolata, 12 May 2017
  2. Los Angeles Times, "Now's the Time to Talk about Flood Insurance, and Moral Hazard", by Welch, 18 September 2017
  3. ESPN, "For the NFL and All of Football, a New Threat: an Evaporating Insurance Market", by Fainaru and Fainaru-Wada, 17 Jan. 2019
  4. CBS, "Explainer: What Is 'Moral Hazard'?", by Thoma, 22 November 2013

Industrial Organization (Theory of the Firm)

  1. The San Diego Union-Tribune, "San Diego Girl Sold 312 Girl Scout Cookie Boxes outside Pot Shop.", by Gomez, 6 February 2018
  2. The Outline, "Drinkfinity’s $20 'Vessel" Is Pepsi’s Attempt to Stay Relevant", by Del Valle, 8 June 2018
  3. The Future, "Brands Are Paying Influencers $75K+ to Trash Their Competitors", by Martineau, 29 August 2018
  4. Vox, "Why Fashion Brands Destroy Billions' Worth of Their Own Merchandise Every Year", by Lieber, 17 September 2018
  5. Astronomy, "This Russian Startup Wants to Put Billboards in Space. Astronomers Aren't Impressed", by Farah, 14 January 2019
  6. The New York Times, "Amazon Knows What You Buy. And It’s Building a Big Ad Business From It.", by Weise, 20 January 2019
  7. The Atlantic, "Now Your Groceries See You, Too", by Fussell, 25 January 2019
  8. New York Magazine, "The Five Families of Feces", by Herbert, 6 February 2019
  9. Wired, "German Regulators Just Outlawed Facebook's Whole Ad Business", by Dreyfuss, 7 February 2019
  10. Los Angeles Times, "Why Are Glasses So Expensive? The Eyewear Industry Prefers to Keep that Blurry", by Lazarus, 22 January 2019
  11. USA Today, "COPY, PASTE, LEGISLATE", by O'Dell and Penzenstadler, 2019
  12. BBC, "Why Airlines Make Flights Longer on Purpose", by Creedy, 9 April 2019
  13. CNBC, "Tobacco company Philip Morris starts life insurance firm that offers discounts to smokers who quit", by LaVito, 23 April 2019
  14. Fox News, "10 Reasons Organic Food Is So Expensive", by The Daily Meal, 21 November 2016
  15. Business Insider, "Tesla isn't facing a wave of competition because there isn't any competition in the electric-car market", by DeBord,
    8 September 2018
  16. Harvard Business Review, "Why Good Companies Go Bad", by Sull, July-August 1999
  17. Forbes, "It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time: 7 Of The Worst Business Decisions Ever Made", by Andersen, 4 October 2013

Intellectual Property: Patents, Copyrights, and Trademarks

  1. The New York Times, "How to Protect a Drug Patent? Give It to a Native American Tribe", by Thomas, 8 September 2017
  2. Digital Music News, "Miley Cyrus Faces a $300 Million Copyright Lawsuit Over a Single Lyric", by Silva, 14 March 2018
  3. The Hindu, "Potato farmers cry foul as PepsiCo sues them", by Jbaraj, 25 April 2019

EU Articles 11 & 13

  1. Gizmodo, "The End of All That's Good and Pure About the Internet", by Jones, 19 June 2018 
  2. CNET, "Article 13: EU Approves Controversial Copyright Law", by Collins, 26 March 2019
  3. Wired, "What is Article 13? The EU's Divisive New Copyright Plan Explained", by Reynolds, 26 March 2019

Antitrust

  1. The Wall Street Journal, "Justice Department Probes Colleges' Early-Decision Admission Practices", by Korn, 7 April 2018
  2. The Verge, "It’s Time to Break Up Facebook", by Patel, 4 September 2008
  3. The Nation, "America Has a Monopoly Problem—and It’s Huge", by Stiglitz, 23 October 2017
  4. AEIdeas, "Considering Counterfactuals to the Sprint and T-Mobile Merger", by Howell, 10 July 2019
  5. Forbes, "California Vote Gives NCAA A Choice: Allow Athlete Endorsements Or Risk Annihilation By Antitrust Law", by Edelman, 10 September 2019
  6. CartoonBrew, "'It’s Time To Break Up Disney', Says Author Of New Book On Monopoly Power In America", by Amidi, 5 Nov. 2019

Game Theory

  1. Scientific American, "What Is Game Theory and What Are Some of Its Applications?", by Gass, 2 June 2003
  2. NPR, "The United Airlines Fiasco: How Game Theory Could Help", by Arnold, 13 April 2017
  3. The Economist, "Applying Game Theory: Three's a Charm", by R.L.G., 3 February 2015
  4. Data Skeptic, "Game Theory", 11 May 2018, (Podcast)
  5. Nautilus, "Larry David and the Game Theory of Anonymous Donations", by Gallagher, 8 June 2018

Advertising

  1. The Guardian, "'Meth. We're on it' – South Dakota's new public health ads raise eyebrows", by O'Neil, 18 November 2019

Healthcare Economics

  1. The New York Times, "Medical Mystery: Something Happened to U.S. Health Spending After 1980", by Frakt, 14 May 2018
  2. Economics Amplified (Podcast/Video Series from the Becker Friedman Institute)
    1. "Discussion Section: Economic Analysis of Health Insurance, Part 1 - ACA / Obamacare", 2018
    2. "Discussion Section: Economic Analysis of Healthcare, Part 2 - Challenges with Community Rating", 2018
    3. "Discussion Section: Economic Analysis of Healthcare, Part 3 - Differentiation Based on Qualities Other Than Age", 2018 
    4. "Discussion Section: Economic Analysis of Healthcare, Part 4: What’s a Sensible Approach?", 2018
  3. Medicare-for-All (Pro/Con)
    1. Boston Globe, "The benefits of Bernie Sanders' 'Medicare for All' plan", by Angell, 21 September 2017
    2. USA Today, "Bernie Sanders Medicare-for-all plan is all wrong for America", by Siegel, 20 September 2017

Statistics & Econometrics

  1. Data Skeptic, "p-values", 12 June 2014, (Podcast)
  2. Data Skeptic, "The t-test", 16 October 2014, (Podcast)
  3. Data Skeptic, "Type i / Type ii Errors", 29 May 2014, (Podcast)
  4. Data Skeptic, "Confidence Intervals, 25 September 2014, (Podcast)
  5. Data Skeptic, "Noise", 21 August 2014, (Podcast)
  6. NPR, "The School Shootings That Weren't", by Kamenetz, Arnold, and Cardinali, 27 August 2018
  7. ArsTechnica, "Mindless Statistics", by Mole, 20 September 2018
  8. Scientific American, "Probability and the Birthday Paradox", by Science Buddies, 29 March 2012
  9. The Economist (through Medium), "Mistakes, We've Drawn a Few", by Leo, 27 March 2019
  10. The New York Times, "When Numbers Mislead", by Coontz, 25 May 2013

Software

  1. ExcelJet, "222 Excel Shortcuts for Windows and Mac"
  2. Daniel Lemire's Blog, "You Shouldn't Use a Spreadsheet for Important Work (I Mean It)"

China

  1. Journal of Economic Perspectives, Symposium: China's Economy [five articles], Vol. 26 No. 4 Fall 2012
  2. Planet Money, "Why China's Official Economic Numbers Shouldn't Be Trusted", by Kestenbaum, 11 September 2015

Growth

  1. Business Insider, "The Rise, Fall, and Comeback of the Chinese Economy over the Past 800 Years", by Holodny, 8 January 2017
  2. Harvard Business Review, "China’s Growth: A Brief History", by Yueh, 9 December 2015

Behavioral Economics

  1. Daniel Kahneman's Ted Talk
  2. NPR, Ted Radio Hour, "What Is a Nudge?" with Richard Thaler
dennis.plott@gmail.com