Robert Hanson posted an article asking why, if people were willing to redistribute income, they weren’t willing to redistribute their GPAs? The Economist responded to it by looking at all the way that GPAs are redistributed in pursuit of egalitarianism. Some of the points include:

• If income worked in the same way that grades do then income would be capped at $2 million a year in America. Why? Because grades, unlike income, Read the rest of this entry →

The rise of Groupon has inevitably drawn the attraction of Economists.

The article raises several questions including whether the value of a business is determined by its model or its function, the deficiencies of most marketing strategies and the role of social media in business. Read it over here.

Source: Reuters

George Jetson had a nine hour workweek? How do we ever get to that? ThinkProgress took a look at the kind of economic growth we would need to reach that kind of development. You can read it over here. It’s surprisingly gettable but Read the rest of this entry →

This article gives an overview of a paper about the game of poker and whether it is more skill or luck. These findings are especially important now as the US government is cracking down on online poker websites. The findings of the economists were that Read the rest of this entry →

Centives will return with weekly editorials about Lehigh University when the semester starts in August. We’ll still have daily updates about economics from around the web so check back often.

Some of our past editorials include: Read the rest of this entry →

This article from the Freakonomics Blog is pretty entertaining. The kids in Abbottabad have clearly been paying attention in their economics classes. A few of them apparently threw a ball into what turned out to be Bin Laden’s compound while playing outside. Rather than letting the kids go and get the ball they had thrown, the residents of the compound paid them 50 rupees to go buy another ball. What did the kids then proceed to do? Read the rest of this entry →

Ever felt that a Cabbie was taking you on a deliberately long route to make you pay more for the ride? Not in New York they didn’t. As it turns out the Taxi business there is one that relies on volume not distance. You can read the story over here; some of the more interesting points include:

• The average tip is Read the rest of this entry →

Ever thought that pursuing an art degree was a decision that would ultimately lead to doom and destruction? Not so as it turns out. A national survey found that people with art degrees were easily able to find jobs with the majority of people saying that they were able to find jobs in the areas they wanted.

You can read more over here, but some of the more interesting conclusions include:

• More than half are working as professional artists, although Read the rest of this entry →

How much did it cost to kill Osama bin Laden? $3 trillion according to one estimate. The article puts the War on Terror in perspective by looking at some of the benefits of the war (Accelerated development of the future of aviation: Unmanned Aircraft) and compares the costs with America’s past military engagements. Read it here.

There are some Read the rest of this entry →

In this article, the question of how best to measure a country’s well-being is brought up. GDP has been the traditional measure, but recently some economists have been questioning if there is a better indicator. Some economists are now interested in Read the rest of this entry →