Markets, Research, and Ethics

More musings induced by my Econ course… My textbook states that “market transactions are characterized by voluntary exchange coordinated by prices.” Except that there’s a big difference between “voluntary” and “well-informed.” One can do something voluntarily that is extremely poorly informed (examples abound), or one can be actively misled and misinformed. One of the arguments that my text makes for why advertising exists, and works, is that it increases the.. Read More

Economics questions

I’m currently taking an Economics course, EC 205: Fundamentals of Economics, a self-paced correspondence course through the Friday Center. Why? Because over the past few years economics has become an increasingly major part of my evaluation-related research: return on investment, cost analysis, etc. And for most of the time I’ve been working in that arena I’ve relied heavily on Lori‘s Econ chops. But now that she’s moving onward and upward.. Read More