An ARBITRARY post: Library reminder

So I got this in my inbox - and I am posting this up as an arbitrary post so that I am updating my blog!

REQUEST NOW AVAILABLE.
The material you requested
is now available for collection
from the listed location. It will
be kept for you for 7 days
from the date on this notice.

AUTHOR: Osborne, Martin J.
TITLE: An introduction to game theory
CALL NO: QA269 .O78 2004
BARCODE: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
LOCATION: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
PICKUP AT: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Martin Osborne baby!!! Yeah baby yeah! A famous game theorist.

Why I am Single: An Economic Explanation

The theory and empirical work around human behaviour is generally in the realm of microeconomics (macroeconomics is the aggregation of microeconomics). And so this is the post on microeconomics which I said I would post in the previous post I posted.

Currently, I am in my final year of my undergraduate economics degree, and it is getting increasingly stressful. If I were to be asked why I am not in a relationship, if I want to be in a relationship, or when I want to be in a relationship, I would reply: (i) no time (ii) not at the moment (iii) not anytime soon. These more or less revolve around the concept of the limitations on my time, because of the workload I have to do at uni.

In economics, apart from thinking of time constraints, we can think of utility and cost (or disutility). Utility is sort of analogous to the 'happiness' I get from being in a relationship (utility covers more than happiness). Cost is the cost of being in a relationship.

Now, given my current situation, my cost function is a quadratic function, perhaps an arbitrary
C = 50t - 2.5t^2 where t = the time period, starting from zero. Let us assume that each unit of t represents a semester at university. Hence, t = 1 is the first semester of the first year; t = 2 is the second semester of the first year, and so on.

If I differentiate this equation with respect to t, I derive my marginal cost function, which is:

MC = 50 - 5t

Now, given my current situation, my utility function is also a quadratic function, perhaps an arbitrary

U = 1.5t^2

If I differentiate this equation with respect to t, I derive my marginal utility function, which is:

MU = 3t

Now, to maximise the utility I get from being in a relationship, I need to set MC = MU (this is an economics condition that is used for profit maximisation in firms).

Hence,
MC = MU
50 - 5t = 3t
8t = 50
t = 6.125

Hence, I would maximise my utility from being in a relationship after I graduate! Remember that each t represents a semester. There are 6 semesters in an undergraduate degree, and so a t of 6.125 implies that it would be most profitable for me to enter into a relationship after I graduate, perhaps a month or 2 after I graduate. Prior to t = 6.125, the marginal cost (disutility) of being in a relationship exceeds the marginal utility, or phrased differently, the cost of being in a relationship exceeds the benefit.

And this explains why I am still single!

Failed Experiment!

Okay, so like none of the other people with the same name as me responded... but nevertheless, that's okay!

My next post will be an interesting topic... with microeconomic foundations!

How many of you are there out there, and how similar are they to you?

Yes a rather odd question for a title. Basically, one night (tonight, in fact), I decided to Google my name to see what turns up. I'm doing this not for pride's sake, but rather that there is an increasing trend for employers to want to Google potential employees to see what they're like - this involves visiting their MySpaces (I have none), blogs (only this one), Facebook (which I have, but hardly use because I spend most of my time with either uni work or research work), Friendster (which I had a looong time ago but which I will delete... soon... if I remember!). Of course, any pictures or comments or videos that you post is visible to the public (depending on your settings), not that I post anything offensive, but just be aware that employers might have a look around.

To those I have written to on their blogs: Hello! I wrote hello note(s) on your pages just to say hello and am wondering if we share anything in common. I initiated contact for the sole purpose of getting to know other people who have the same name as me, nothing else, but pure friendship. To those who got the mail, feel free to leave a comment to this post if you wish :-)

Game Theory: WHY!?

How ironic that since last semester, I thought, oooh yes I would LOVE to do game theory. I understood that it involved quite a fair bit of mathematics, but I thought that I could possibly manage. The first week of class was easy - just a revision of some common games, including the infamous Prisoner's Dilemma. But then the second week came, and that was a killer because I realized one important thing... math is INsufficient (what a shock, I know!) for game theory; one also needs to have strong skills in figuring diagrams out when the explanations somehow don't do the work... and I have read the prescribed chapter of the book, and I think if I were to read it twice, it wouldn't help get me from understanding nothing to understanding something! What a shock this class has turned out to be, but I, determined to be some sort of a future microeconomist, have to hold on I suppose. If this is only week 2, I am dreading week 3!

This brings me to a question I really should ask myself: Do I REALLY want to become a game theorist, or a microeconomist for that matter?!

Politics: Whitman's lecture on political economy

The pdf is from his website, here.

Of interest: Glen Whitman's post on incentives

I think this post is highly interesting. Reason: a basic assumption of microeconomics is that people (economists call them 'economic agents') are motivated by incentives. Common sense, no? Whitman was outlining the point that incentives might not work in the way in which we might predict, because economic agents aren't robots basically - they are tempted to cheat, to evade the law, etc, so these need to be accounted for when introducing incentives.

Have a read here.