The Right Way to Enter an Auction
The McCook School District, as described in the link below, is auctioning off classroom materials such as desks, books, chairs, etc. This auction is planned to be a silent auction, but is not stated in the article whether the auction would be first price or second price. Regardless of which type of silent auction, either first […]
The Issues Google Faces When Ranking Links
Not often do people think about how much effort goes into ranking the vast amount of data Google deals with. For example, searching “Barack Obama” on Google leads to 172,000,000 results. After initially considering this, one can conclude that Google must run into several issues when they try to rank links, especially ones that are […]
Matching Markets and Organ Donations
http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/06/11/412224854/how-an-economist-helped-patients-find-the-right-kidney-donor Alvin Roth, the laureate of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Economics, works to find practical application for economics theories—for example by working with New York City high schools to come up with a better lottery system and by improving medical residency assignments. One particular area he has improved through economics principles is the […]
Auctions for College Housing: how bad could it be?
As strange as it sounds, more and more people are turning to online real estate auctions each year. While that may be an intriguing idea for the average homeowner, it might be disastrous for the desperate college student. Every year, finding housing here in Ithaca is always a struggle. We are paying prices that have […]
Game Theory and the Republican Party
With election day rapidly approaching, many Republicans have begun rescinding their endorsement of the Republican nominee, Donald Trump. Many are questioning how he even got this far in the first place. In this recently published Bloomberg article, economists use game theory to offer an explanation as to why the party is falling apart. Game theory is a branch […]
Matching Markets and The Science of Free
The other day, I was reading the book “Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions” by Dr. Dan Ariely. It’s a great book on behavioral economics, leaving you with lots of thought upon finishing, making you question your decisions and your freewill. Chapter 3, “The Cost of Zero Cost”, was one of the […]
Miami Dolphins Upset The Pittsburgh Steelers
In this week’s latest upset, the Miami Dolphins a relatively bad team in the NFL, blew out the Pittsburgh Steelers, a superbowl contender. How did the Dolphins pull off this amazing feat and what suddenly changed for this complete dominance seen in Week 6 of the 2016 NFL season? Well as we learned in […]
Blockchains Act to Evenly Distribute Network Power
The advent of bitcoin and their rapid adaption into technology challenges the functioning of society. Bitcoin is focused on economics but the technology behind bitcoin, the Blockchain, is not limited to this function. While future prospects for Blockchains are numerous, that is a discussion for a different time. Rather I would like to examine what […]
No Perfect Draft Matching
The world of professional sports involves many different types of matching. In particular, the NBA Draft process deals with multiple teams and many skilled players competing for spots on these teams. The way the draft lottery operates is that the team with the worst record of the previous season, the team with most losses and least wins, receives […]
Using network analysis to time India’s monsoon
As social networks evolve, the analysis involved with studying the complexity of these networks are evolving as well. Specifically, social network analysis are starting to be used to predict trends in climate systems. Researchers at the Potsdam Institute are using network analysis to predict the timing of the Indian monsoon onset and offset. The heavy […]
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