The Best Fields of Economics
TIER LIST!!
By far the most requested video has been to do something on the diverse fields of economics. But I had to think of a way to do this that would be informative and entertaining. After all, you have a high opportunity cost of time and can’t waste it on a boring video.
I’m happy to say I discovered an interesting way to discuss the fields. A tier list! I’m not joking when I say this is the most controversial video I’ve ever made. I’m worried that my colleagues will see it and yell at me. You might do the same!
Did I get it right? Or am I completely off base?
American Forks
You might not know that Americans and Europeans have different fork etiquette. Europeans keep the fork in the same hand; but Americans have the fork in the left hand, cut the meat with the knife in the right hand, then set the knife down and switch the fork to the right hand to lift the meat to the mouth. The American way is called the zigzag method.
Well, for readers of this newsletter, it will come as no surprise that the origin of this behavior is economics! Back in the 1700s the Navigation Acts stopped Americans from having forks, and when we finally got them our etiquette had already evolved. It’s a great example of path dependence. I tweeted about it here:
Market Power anniversary
Last Monday was the two-year anniversary of Market Power! That first video used cookies to demonstrate the economic principle of trade-offs, and my kids still ask if I can do another video where I make too many cookies for our family to eat. If you want to see how the famous author Alexandre Dumas responded to incentives, you can see the first video here.
But more importantly, a big thanks to you readers. Without your support I would have given up a long time ago. The community is growing, and a big goal for 2021 is to create a way for the community to interact and learn from each other. Stay tuned!
Supply and Demand
If you want a great example of a market moving to a new equilibrium, look at US apartments this year. With so many people moving to remote work, cities have a lot of vacant apartments. When demand drops, what happens to prices? Here’s an article full of great visuals.
Simp
My other favorite graph this week comes from Twitch. I’m not on the platform, but apparently this week they banned the use of “simp". That’s an increase in the price of a word. What do you think happened to use? Someone tracked it here.