Connecting the Dots

Over the course of the past month and a half, the themes we discussed have gradually built upon one another leading to a synonymous harmony in our blog posts. Looking at the first post on our alias, I was tasked with defining who Adam Smith was and the contributions he had on the thought processes of economics. His concept of the invisible hand provides the backbone for transfer pricing, the structure of organizations, and even what causes them to make certain decisions as they are generally acting in their own self-interest. While I know that not everyone had the chance to research Adam Smith, I am quite sure the other economists that classmates wrote about had topics that tied in as well. Writing about my experiences with organizations and tying in the concepts we’ve learned in class has allowed me to view organizations in a different light. I no longer perceive a business as it is, rather I delve deeper into how they are structured and the reasons they behave the way they do. For example, I used to look at the bar I work at on campus as a point of sale business where students came to buy drinks then left. However, I am now able to view the hierarchy of employees, the methods of management, and what actually drives the business of the bar and allows it to prosper. The theme of Illinibucks could also be compared to creating a more efficient organization. Efficiency can definitely be tied in with opportunism and whether or not organizations take advantage of situations to improve the fluidity and ease of transaction. Furthermore, you could then questions what the transaction costs of the opportunity would be and if it would impact the structure of the organization.

My writing process has definitely been improving over time, however, due to the various styled prompts, I have struggled to dive in-depth on some of the topics. My experience with organizations was very easy to talk about as it was something that I had experienced first-hand throughout my life. The words came naturally and flowed onto the paper and before I realized, I had reached the 600-word limit. However, looking at the prompt of Illinibucks, there were a lot of things that were up in the air. This prompt required you to think more creatively on what kinds of things on campus could use an efficiency improvement. However, after rethinking the concept of Illinibucks I believe that they would not be the right decision as they do not cater to the entire population that uses the amenities. I do think my writing style has become more scholarly than it was before. I had never truly been exposed to economic writing before taking this class as most of the pre-requisites and requirements for the economics degree generally just included math and statistics.  

In terms of actually writing the prompt, I do not really see anything wrong with the approach you have been taking. I think they tie nicely into what we have been talking about in class and the Excel homework we have been completing. Transfer pricing was definitely the most obvious connection in terms of Excel, lecture and prompt. However, I think a lot of students tend to forget that you do not need to write about the prompt every week and can instead bring up your own prompt that relates to a topic from class. I think advertising this more would lead to a wide array of posts and would create a better environment for discussion. If everyone came up with a topic to tie in we could treat lectures as a discussion where everyone shared what they wrote about and why.