University Funding Cuts

Sorry for the lack of new threads lately – you know the story, snowed under by assessment items and job applications etc.

Given our vested interest in the higher education sector, I thought it was only logical that this blog open a discussion about the recent announcement of funding cuts to Australian universities. A summary of the cuts can be found here.

Try to think of this decision from a (benevolent) policy-maker's perspective. How would this policy be analysed in terms of equity and efficiency? Where are the funds going and does this seem like a logical trade-off? What would you have done differently? Are there any other issues regarding higher education policy that you would like to discuss (e.g. vouchers vs. the current HECS system, competitiveness of the sector, sustainability)?

Sound off in the comments below! 

The Low Rate Conundrum

This should appeal to all of the fans of macroeconomics. Here is a blog from The Economist on monetary policy in the U.S. from last week.

Some questions to think/comment about: How low is too low with regards to interest rates? Are low U.S. interest rates really just the Fed's fault? Is the Fed setting the U.S. economy up for even more problems in the long-term with it's persistent low interest rates and quantitative easing?

Sound off below!

The Cost of Crime

Another Ross Gittins article for you - this time related to crime. The link is here.

Personally, I always find it interesting when economics is applied to some non-traditional areas. How can we use our resources more efficiently to reduce crime? Gittins makes a great point about the severity of the punishment being less important that the swiftness with which it is administered. Look at the U.S. - many states still have the death penalty, but inmates usually wait YEARS for their punishment (if it ever comes at all). And the U.S. crime rate? Still substantial for a Western country.

Obviously, there are numerous factors at play when it comes to the determinants of crime, and the type and swiftness of the punishment are only 2 of them. From an econometric perspective, there is also an endogeneity issue at play when modelling and explaining the crime rate - some of the explanatory variables are jointly determined with the crime rate. For example, you would think that increasing the number of police officers would reduce the about of crime. But you would also think that if the crime rate went up, the number of police officers hired would increase. This is endogeneity, and must be carefully dealt with by the analyst in their model.

So given this article, what policies would you put in place to reduce crime and potentially reduce the cost to taxpayers?

Leaving Comments and Creating a Blogger Account

I put together some instructions on how to post your first comment and simultaneously create your Blogger account using your Griffith student email address.

Hope this helps!

Impatient Miners Hijacking Economy

One article that generated a fair bit of discussion among the Economics Internship forum last semester was "Impatient miners hijacking economy" by Ross Gittins. The link is here.

Any opinions on this article? Perhaps some areas to discuss could include how prices create incentives for different economic agents, how risk should be dealt with in discount rates, and how best to consider the welfare of future generations in a traditionally short-sighted economic environment.

Welcome!

Welcome to the Griffith University Economics Blog! Glad you could find it.

For those who don’t know me, my name is Stephanie Parsons and I graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce (Economics and Finance) from Griffith University (Gold Coast) in 2012. I am now completing my Honours in Economics so I will be splitting my time between the Gold Coast and Nathan campuses this year.

The idea for this blog came from the Economics Internship program I completed in 2012, where one assessment item involved posting in an “Economics Forum” frequently during the semester. This forum (which was based in the “Discussion Board” section of Learning@Griffith) discussed various topical issues in economics using newspaper articles, interviews, and op-ed pieces as stimuli. We could even post our own ideas to start a thread.

What I want to do is expand this concept to all students studying economics! I found the writing process to be quite enjoyable and a nice change from the usual academic writing style we use for assignments and exams.

Since we don’t have access to our own Discussion Board on Learning@Griffith, I figured the next best thing was to start a Blogger/Blogspot account. The reason I’ve chosen to use Blogger/Blogspot is that it is powered by Google, as are our student emails. Blogger allows you to sign in with your Griffith email account and password and comment on blogs without actually having to make your own blog if you don’t want to. I’m a first time user of Blogger myself, so there may be some kinks to sort out initially, but I’m hoping we can create a little Griffith blogging community here.

Some basic guidelines for this blog:

·         You must post using your student email address – no personal email accounts otherwise we don’t know who you are.

·         While everyone can comment on blog posts, only I can make new threads. If you have an idea for a new thread you can send it to me at griffitheconomicsblog@gmail.com and I will post it on the blog. They don't need to be very long, just enough to get the conversation started. Sometimes all you'll need to start a new thread is a link. But if you're in the mood to vent about a particular economics issue (i.e. write several hundred words), that's fine too.

·         I know it’s obvious, but please don’t be a troll or post hateful comments here – they will be deleted. If you are going to criticise, be constructive with your comments. Don’t say something online you wouldn’t say in person.

·         Lastly, this is just meant to be a bit of fun. See it as an opportunity to take economics out of the classroom and into the real world.

I hope you enjoy this blog! J

P.S. When it comes to blogs, I say the more contributors the merrier! So tell your friends about this blog, share it on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, and even mention it to your lecturers and tutors! As I said, anyone with a Griffith email address is welcome to post.