Final Copy Human of UA Project for ECON150

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Humans of UA ECON 150 – Fall 2016 Due: Upload your Word document to Dropbox on D2L by midnight on November 16. Class dollars earned: up to $40,000 on November 16 with the possibil ... ity of an additional $5,000 for revised essays turned in to Dropbox on D2L by midnight on December 6. You must attend the peer review session during class on November 17 if you want to turn in a revised essay. No late or emailed essays will be accepted. Instructions: The “Humans of UA” project gives you the opportunity to creatively demonstrate you understanding of an economic principle(s) discussed during this course. As you prepare for this project, listen to people you encounter during you day and think about how what they’re saying applies to economics. For example, while I was paying for my parking at the garage, the gal next to me was on her phone saying, “Yeah, I pay a lot for my parking, but I don’t care, because I make a lot of money.” Wow! That was a perfect example of income as a determinant of price elasticity of demand. If we had more time, I would have liked to ask her if she had always felt that way about paying for parking and what circumstances had brought her to that decision. If you are not comfortable striking up a conversation with a complete stranger, talk to people you know. Ask them to tell you a little about themself or share an interesting story from their life, and see if you can identify the economics in their story. You may need to interview a few people before you hear a story you want to use for your project. Once you find the person and story you want to focus on, take a photograph of the person (quality and creativity counts!), record their story and a key quote, and explain the connection to the economic principle(s) you want to highlight. This essay should be no more than 750 words. Many excellent essays are significantly shorter. Avoid complex terminology. Imagine you are writing for someone who has never taken a course in economics. The best essays are ones that would be clearly intelligible to such a person, and typically these papers do not use any algebra or graphs. The inspiration for this project comes from the Humans of New York photojournalism project begun by Brandon Stanton in 2010. Stanton shared his photographs and short stories of everyday New Yorkers on social media and now has over 22 million combined followers on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter! You can read his blog at have included a few examples below of how his stories may be applied to economics. Grading Rubric: Three primary components are considered – the story you have based your project on, the essay that connects the relevant economic principle(s), and the photograph. A -­‐ Among the best in the class. The entire project is of the highest quality, well written, and original. The story is highly engaging. The writer clearly and skillfully uses their story to illustrate an economic principle(s). The essay is free or nearly free of errors in grammar, punctuation, and mechanics. The photograph shows care in composition, engages the viewer, and connects them to the person in the essay. B – Better than average. The project is competent, satisfactorily composed, and mildly original. The story is interesting. The essay is good, and at times impressive. The essay manifests minor, occasional errors in grammar, punctuation, or mechanics. The photograph is clear and good quality. C – Average. The project is adequate and meets the requirements outlined in the assignment. The story may be somewhat interesting. The essay suffers from poor organization and unclear application of the economic principles in question. The essay has frequent errors in grammar, punctuation, or mechanics. The photograph is average quality or uninteresting. D – Barely adequate. The discussion is trivial and unoriginal. The essay demonstrates serious deficiencies or severe flaws in command of course material. The essay contains major, persistent errors in grammar, punctuation, or mechanics. E -­‐ The project is unsuccessful and indicates a student’s neglect of lack of effort in the course.Examples: “I lived in Cobble Hill for 20 years. I had a rent-­‐stabilized apartment. But I got tired of the city. I got tired of the crowds, and the people bumping into you, and nobody saying ‘Excuse me.’ So I had the idea to move to Atlanta and try to open a café. My friends said: ‘Don’t do it. You’ll regret losing the apartment.’ But I was feeling adventurous. I was tired of New York. I knew I made a mistake the first day I was there. I didn’t have a car. I had to walk a mile to Trader Joe’s. There were no cabs anywhere. No f****g cabs. What the f**k? And the hills! So many hills! And the movie I wanted to see was two counties away. Two counties! I don't even want to talk about laundry day. I missed being able to get everything I needed on my block. I missed the sidewalks, and the tall buildings, and the half-­‐priced Broadway tickets, and the restaurants. I can take the crowds now. I can handle it. But I lost my apartment! I don’t know where to live. An apartment that size is going to cost me twice as much now. I can only afford a room. I should have listened to my friends. Oh man, I messed up.” ?type=3&theater This woman from Brooklyn’s Cobble Hill had a rent-­‐stabilized apartment. She was ready for a change and told her friends that she was thinking of moving to Atlanta to open a café. They all said "Don't do it. You'll regret losing the apartment." She clearly felt she would be missing valuable experiences by not moving to Atlanta (the opportunity cost of staying in Brooklyn), so she ignored their advice and moved anyway. Almost immediately, she knew it was a mistake. She thought that she would enjoy having more space, but instead she discovered that the services she enjoyed were harder to get to because of the lower population density, an urban economics issue. Atlanta was designed for driving, not walking, and that raised the time cost for her to do what she liked. Eventually, she moved back to New York City. However, because she gave up her rent controlled apartment, when she returned she could only afford a room at market prices. Rent-­‐stabilized apartments are an example of a price ceiling that creates market distortions. The woman in the story and others in New York City who enjoy living in rent-­‐stabilized apartments pay a below market rent for their places. On the flip side, landlords who own rent-­‐stabilized apartments receive a below market rent for their units. This changes the incentive structure in the marketplace. Not surprisingly, the quantity demanded for the rent-­‐stabilized apartments far exceeds the quantity supplied resulting in a shortage. This simple story illustrates the basics of supply and demand. “After I finish my shift at the bakery, I start my shift at Starbucks. I work 95 hours per week at three different jobs. One of my sons graduated from Yale, and I have two more children in college. And when they finish, I want to go to college too. I want to be a Big Boss. I’m a boss at the bakery right now, but just a little boss. I want to be a Big Boss.” /711/after-­‐i-­‐finish-­‐my-­‐shift-­‐atthe-­‐bakery-­‐i-­‐start-­‐my The “little boss” in the story is working three different jobs in order to make ends meet all while putting her children through school in order to increase their human capital. She recognizes educational attainment increases their marginal product of labor and, consequently, wages, and wants to pursue it herself after her kids finish their schooling. However, each additional (or marginal) hour of labor that she works gets her children that much closer to their degree. In terms of opportunity cost, she is foregoing her dreams of returning to school herself to become the “big bakery boss” someday, so that she can instead fund the dreams of her children who are currently in college. This tradeoff between attending college and working also demonstrates intertemporal preferences, as she believes that putting her dreams on hold (foregoing current consumption) will result in a greater future payoff.“Before medical school I was really into music. I’d work really hard on some songs, and post them on YouTube, and sometimes they’d get a few thousand views. There was a girl I used to collaborate with. We did a few covers together. But I went to medical school, and she skipped college and focused on music full time. Anyway, she’s doing great now. All her songs get hundreds of thousands of views, and she just got back from a tour in Asia, and is talking with some major record labels. The funny thing is, she stopped in New York awhile back, and we met up and recorded a cover together, just for old time’s sake. We just threw it together really quickly, but because of who she is now, that song got more views than the combined total of everything else I ever worked on. It’s funny how things work out.” This man decided to attend medical school and gave up playing music. On the surface, this seems to be a wise choice since only a few musicians ever earn as much as a physician. However, he laments that a friend he used to record covers with has now become quite successful making recordings and he wonders if he made the right choice. When they caught up recently they decided to make a new cover together and, because she has now become famous, the new cover has “more views than the combined total of everything else I ever worked on. It's funny how things worked out.” You sense that he might have pursued a different path if he had known that his collaborations with her would have become so successful. He gave up that opportunity when he went to medical school, which economists refer to as a sunk cost. His opportunity cost of pursuing medical school was the chance at stardom that his friend achieved. A few musicians make a lot more than physicians, through a highly competitive process known as tournament pay, but most of the time, physicians will far out earn musicians. The expected payoff of each career can be calculated by multiplying the earnings by the probability of receiving them. If one finishes medical school, there is a high probability of a good salary. If one pursues being a star musician, there is an extremely low probability of an extremely high income. The fact that he was not willing to pursue a career in music tells us that he preferred a certain income with less variability to an uncertain career with lots of variability in earnings. His choices reflect his personal risk preferences and the outcome illustrates the uncertainty inherent in economics. [Show More]

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