Personal Statement For Economics

Using the data and your own economic knowledge, assess the case for financing universities mainly through charging fees to their students.

There are few certainties of what one will encounter during life. A common joke names two: death and

Kahneman’s article is an analysis of intuitive thinking and how it guides our decision-making. Although primarily aimed at the field of psychology, it is an interdisciplinary article with applications in economic theorising. Kahneman attempts to differentiate between two systems of thought, one of intuition (system 1) and one of reasoning (system 2), and argues that many judgements and choices are made intuitively, rather than with reason (a slower and more deliberate process). Intuitive decision making, which encompasses heuristics, although generally more efficient and rapid, makes the agent potentially subject to errors due to framing effects or violations of dominance. The analysis of the studies and theoretical situations also provides criticism of the commonly held model of the rational agent within economics. The article also further conceptualises Kahneman’s theory, the Prospect Theory (Kahneman & Tversky, 1979), which has descriptive applications of people’s choice in decision-making situations involving risk and known probability of outcomes. These situations are typically unexplained by the more normative rational agent model.

Basic economic models assume that all parties have “perfect information.” How does “informational asymmetry” undermine our market economy?

As an avid problem solver, I had often been encouraged to take up Mathematics as a degree. However, I find myself engulfed in an increasingly uncertain economic landscape, where even the most intuitive economists cannot prevent suboptimal outcomes. In Mathematics I enjoy the challenge of finding the right answer, but the challenge of finding the right answer where one might not even exist has drawn me towards economics.

According to Kolb, (1993) The American Medical Association (AMA) has defined economic credentialing as "the use of economic criteria unrelated to quality of care or professional competency in determining an individual's qualifications for initial or continuing hospital medical staff membership or privileges. Economic credentialing is used by institution to help improve their bottom line. In the past institutions were “Doctor’s workshops”, and seen as place were providers can work. Recent cost constraints placed on institutions have force them to look closely not only how they use their resource but how provider that come to their institution utilize resources. Providers who do not manage resources well are a drain on the system and threaten financial ruin. For this reason, institutions have begun to look at various aspects of cost related issues. According to Colby 1993 he is include: “length of stay by diagnosis related group (DRG), charges by DRG, charges or length of stay adjusted for severity of illness, utilization review denials, bad debt/write-offs, cost of malpractice suits with hospital as codefendant, timeliness of medical record completion, and incident reports.collectively valuation of these factors results in economic credentialing.” At times institution’s will also look at outside factors that affect the overall income of the facility. According to Layne (2004) “hospitals also have responded by refusing to credential physicians with conflicts of interest who compete against them through the for-profit specialty providers in

This document is authorized for use only by Yen Ting Chen in FInancial Markets and Institutions taught by Nawal Ahmed Boston University from September 2014 to December 2014.

This distinctive book called, “Thinking, Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman, is one of very few exquisite readings I’ve completed so far. Daniel Kahneman is a psychologist in Princeton University, and due to his research, he won a Nobel Prize in 2002 in economics. In the beginning of his book, he speaks of our cognitive System 1 and System 2 ways of thinking. System 1 generates feelings, impressions, and memory. It is very instinctive, automatic, and is considered quick thinking. System 2 on the other hand, is alert during complex problem solving, while dealing with facts and knowledge, and is attentive while working with difficult calculations. For example, a problem such as 24 x 13, this takes more time and knowledge to figure out (System 2), rather then recognizing an emotion from face expressions (System 1). When System 1 is strained, your System 2 steps in to help you process through that specific instant. Now aside from the psychological portion of this book, Mr. Kahneman divulges about a consolidated economic analysis with elemental intuitions from the psychological perspective; such as, luck and skill, overconfidence, risks in the stock market, factors of success and the decision making process. This book is overall concluded with the understanding of behavioral economics, which is the social and cognitive components on economic decisions that are defined by individuals and have consequences that reflect from making those decisions and taking those risks.

In our lives, we have to make important choices, and sometimes our choices determine our happiness or sadness. As a Filipino, our families tell us to do well in school and to not make bad choices because they want us to be successful and to have ethical morals. Growing up as a Catholic, I was taught to be obedient and respectful to my family which has shaped who I am today. Yet, I too made some mistakes, and I learned from the consequences. From my failures, I learned to not belittle myself, but to grow.

The success of the model is attributed to Yale’s ability to combine both quantitative analysis (mean-variance analysis) with market judgments to structure its portfolio. In addition, Yale also uses statistical analysis to actively test their models with factors affecting the market, therefore understanding the sensitivity of their portfolio in response to various market changes. Yale also follows and forecasts the cash flow of private equity and real assets in its portfolio to decide the need for hedging.

The efficient market, as one of the pillars of neoclassical finance, asserts that financial markets are efficient on information. The efficient market hypothesis suggests that there is no trading system based on currently available information that could be expected to generate excess risk-adjusted returns consistently as this information is already reflected in current prices. However, EMH has been the most controversial subject of research in the fields of financial economics during the last 40 years. “Behavioural finance, however, is now seriously challenging this premise by arguing that people are clearly not rational” (Ross, (2002)). Behavioral finance uses facts from psychology and other human sciences in order to

When I was first given this assignment I was extremely perplexed at how I would even begin to finish it. I had no idea how economics related to my life in anyway. I hadn’t thought about it critically and I struggling terribly. Thanks to some much needed help from a fellow classmate, he allowed me to get an idea of things from his own essay. After reading not one, but two other essays, I was so surprised at how oblivious I had been. I never realized that just about everything that goes on in my daily life is, in fact, economics. I never realized that from the things I buy to the money I earn from working is all economics. The things I miss out of while working or going to school is a complete opportunity cost. Or even

My independent research in the field started with my curious interest in the processes of how decisions made by individuals and governments, what are the main factors encouraged them to choose particular decision over other options and the outcomes of those decisions. Then, I started to read theories of great Economists, such as, Keynes, Freidman , Devenport, Kinnerly and Mason who wrote on decision-making and the ability of individual to interpret the information. Additionally, there were theories by De Bondt , Clark , Tversky and Kehnman who argued that human psychology is interconnected with economics which cannot be ignored. Learning those theories and comparing them with the real life happenings, my enthusiasm to get deeper insights of economics increased. Encouraged by this, I have compiled

First, have a definite, clear practical ideal; a goal, an objective. Second, have the necessary means to achieve your ends; wisdom, money, materials, and methods. Third, adjust all your means to that end." ~ Aristotle

I have gained much respect for Economics as a field of study during this course. Being a political science major, I can honestly say that there isn’t all that much science in many of the topics. Conversation in political science can be argumentative and normative without concrete reason or evidence. Economics, on the other hand, is intuitive and backed by research. More refreshingly, economics simply puts its research out for the world to see, and sure individual economists may voice their opinions about public policy, but as a field, it is based mainly on positive statements; it tells it like it is without venturing into how it should be. Economists do have a rough job in a way, they can’t simply do research by conducting regular experiments like altering the nation’s monetary supply or increasing the minimum wage to study the effects on unemployment. It is impressive that they find a way to use existing data to draw their conclusions. They really make the most out of what they are given. Additionally, it is nice that assumptions about complex economic topics are made so even students in basic principles courses can understand the concepts in simple economic models.