Adam Galambos

Author: Adam Galambos

Zornow wins Lawrence Economics evolutionary game tournament

Many of us just returned from Björklunden, where we spent the weekend talking about game theory, outsourcing at Lawrence and elsewhere, and the economies of Monterrey, Bangalore, Seattle, and Johannesburg. And we enjoyed late (?) winter in Door county, as well as Georgi’s guitar playing and Sunghun’s piano music.

We also held the first Lawrence Economics evolutionary game tournament. This competition follows in the tradition started by Robert Axelrod, who organized a computer tournament in the 1970’s to see what kind of behavior will be most successful in an evolutionary game. Participants entered strategies (described as algorithms), and each such entry became an agent in Axelrod’s world. These agents met randomly and played the prisoners’ dilemma game. Our competition also featured random encounters and the prisoners’ dilemma game.

Though many were betting on strategies such as “sneaky” and “defector,” in the end Oliver Zornow’s “foolfor7” took the $25 prize, to be awarded at Monday’s Econ TeaBA. “Foolfor7” started alone but reproduced faster than any other strategy, and avoided being exploited with its trademark “fool me 7 times, shame on you, fool me 8 times, shame on me” approach to life in a squareful of pixels. We used the fun, convenient and easy to learn Netlogo software to run the simulation. If you’d like to play with the parameters and check out how the various strategies would fare in different populations, download the free netlogo software and open this Netlogo file (download the zip file and double click on it to unpack it).

Free and fun agent based model simulator

Careers in Advertising, Marketing and Branding

Marketing America’s first carbon neutral beer; Creating a winning Superbowl ad; Apple: Shattering expectations, exploding orthodoxies, making nice; Branding the tallest building in the world; Creating a highly profitable, award-winning, new restaurant which helps to change the way people eat … for the better. Does any of this sound interesting to you? See some great, multimedia presentations on these topics from Lawrentians who are at the top of the marketing world, and find out more about careers in marketing, advertising, and branding. Whatever your background, you may find marketing interesting and profitable, but these careers fit especially well for students from Arts, Music, Psychology, Anthropology, English, Economics, and social science generally.

Join us Sunday, February 21st at 3:00pm. Sign up in the Career Center or by email at careercenter@lawrence.edu. If you’d like to join the group for dinner in Andrew Commons afterwards, sign up for that, too–we’ll pay for dinner! Here’s a poster for the event!

Sex ratios, economics, and the campus

This interesting blog post by market designer Al Roth of Harvard University summarizes an economics paper that links the preponderance of boys in China to the high Chinese savings rate. On the other hand, women are clearly in the majority on US college campuses. (No, this doesn’t explain the US savings rate, but it has other interesting consequences.)

Microsoft’s Self-Destruction

It isn’t news that innovation at Microsoft has been lackluster, as this article from Fast Company put it in 2007. Alumni of the In Pursuit of Innovation course know Clayton Christensen’s teaching: large companies are in danger of suppressing innovation just by trying to do well what made them successful in the first place. This op-ed piece from the New York Times by a former VP gives a few startling examples of a corporate organization that seems to strangle innovation. Where did the 9.5 billion dollars go that Microsoft spent on research and innovation last year?

Management Consulting Summit

Twelve students and four professors just finished lunch with five Lawrentians who have become successful consultants. During the three hours before lunch, we learned a lot about consulting, about careers in the consulting world, and about how Lawrence students can get their foot in the door. Students who came got invaluable advice and made connections with Lawrence alumni. If you weren’t there, you missed out–make sure you come to the next event on the banking industry on February 13th (Saturday of reading period). And you might want to take a look at the Pyramid Principle by Barbara Minto.

Talk to us!

The Economics Blog is now accepting comments on some posts. You just need to click on the “Comments” link, such as the one below. Your comment will not be immediately visible, but it should be in a day or so. We are looking forward to reading your responses–so talk to us, comment to your heart’s content!

Eco-bling

This article in The Times reports on a study by the Royal Academy of Engineering, claiming that

Roof-mounted wind turbines and solar panels are “eco-bling” that allow their owners to flaunt their green credentials but contribute very little towards meeting Britain’s carbon reduction targets.

I guess if one were to engage in conspicuous consumption using eco-bling, this might work a lot better.

Management Consulting Summit

The Lawrence Scholars in Business program is hosting a Management Consulting Summit on Saturday, January 23rd from 9:00 to 12:00, with lunch following. All students who are interested in learning more about management consulting from successful Lawrence alumni are encouraged to attend. Lawrentians from major consulting firms will talk about their careers, about the field, and what you can do if you are interested in becoming a consultant. There will also be an interactive case study. Students interested in lunch afterward should go through the line in Andrew Commons and join us in the Parrish/Perille room. Please sign up in the Career Center for the summit as well as for the lunch. We hope to see you there!

Bjorklunden

This year the Department of Economics is holding a symposium at Björklunden involving three courses: Urban Economics, Economics of the Firm, and Social Choice Theory. Students in these courses will be presenting their work to other students and to economics faculty. We will also have a session on presentation skills and writing in economics. Students in aforementioned courses will be coming along as part of their coursework, but we may have a few spaces for others (not enrolled in these courses) to join us. If you are interested in joining us, please let Adam Galambos know.

Does economics make you a money-maniac?

In a recent post, Professor Gerard wonders whether “we take our models too seriously or not seriously enough.” His question was prompted by this article from the Wall Street Journal describing the many ways in which certain well-known and less well-known economists seem to be obsessed with… well, economizing. But, if that is true, is it because cheapskates are attracted to the study of economics, or because economics makes people obsessed with money? One prominent economic theorist, Ariel Rubinstein, was so concerned with what he saw as excessive emphasis on profit maximization in economics that he decided to study this question empirically. His paper, A Sceptic’s Comment on the Study of Economics, seems to confirm his fears.

I am with Rubinstein on this one, and I find it important to emphasize that economics is not about selfishness and profit maximization at the expense of anything else that’s part of the “bigger picture.” On the other hand, some more of rational thought and maximization would do many people and organizations a great deal of good…

New resource in Economics

The Mudd Library just subscribed to the New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, a very useful resource for students and faculty. The dictionary contains readable, comprehensive and up-to-date articles on topics from all fields in Economics. The dictionary is catalogued in LUCIA, and it is directly accessible here (probably only on campus).

I recently found the article on “unforeseen contingencies” very useful–non-technical, yet conveying the important points. The 10 most accessed articles include “liquidity trap,” “Wal-Mart, economics of,” and “financial structure and economic development.”

Lecture and Q&A on Business Ethics

The next LSB event will be on November 7th at 4:30pm in Science 102:
Harry Kraemer(Executive Partner, Madison Dearborn Partners; Clinical Professor of Management and Strategy at Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University; Former CEO of Baxter International; Chairman of the Board of Trustees at Lawrence University) will be speaking on Values-Based Leadership. Some preliminary readings are outside Briggs 212, or online here, here, and here. If you are a Lawrence student or faculty member interested in joining Mr. Kraemer and others for dinner afterwards, please let Adam Galambos know.

Graduate school in economics

The Department of Economics is presenting a Graduate School In Economics advising session on Monday, October 12th at 4:00pm in Briggs 217. We strongly encourage all students (especially sophomores, juniors and seniors) who are considering doing graduate work in Economics to attend. Professors Finkler, Karagyozova, Gerard and Galambos will be answering your questions about applying to graduate school. Please let any one of them know in advance if you plan to attend.

Trip to Wells Fargo

The Career Center has organized a trip to Wells Fargo Wealth Management on Thursday, October 22 (Thursday of reading period). Vans will leave from the Career Center driveway at 8 a.m. and return at approximately 2:30 p.m. The tour of Wells Fargo will take place between 10 and noon at the Menomonee Falls site.

If you’d like to go, stop by the Career Center to sign up.

iOMe challenge

“You’re NOT even working yet –

and your Retirement Plan is already all screwed up! Huh!?

And Guess What? Some old people somewhere aren’t going to fix it for you!

Are YOU up for a Good Challenge?”

If that caught your attention, go to this website to find out more. If you are up to the challenge and have some ideas, you’ll need to talk a faculty member into being your team’s faculty advisor. The winner gets $16,000 and the ears of policymakers in Washington DC.

New faculty members

The Economics department is very pleased to welcome David Gerard, who is joining us as an Associate Professor this Fall, and Tsvety Karagyozova, who is joining us as an Assistant Professor this Fall.

Professor Karagyozova comes to Lawrence after a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of British Columbia. She received a Masters Degree in Finance from the University for National and World Economics from her native Bulgaria, an MA degree in Economics from the University of Colorado at Denver, and her PhD in Economics from the University of Connecticut. Her research fields are Financial Economics, Industrial Organization, and Macroeconomics with a particular interest in International Finance. This year she will be teaching courses entitled Topics in International Economics, Applied Financial Economics, Econometrics, Advanced International Economics, and Introductory Macroeconomics.

Professor Gerard holds a BA in American Studies and Economics from Grinnell College and a PhD in Economics from the University of Illinois. He has spent the last six years as executive director of the Center for the Study and Improvement of Regulation in the Department of Engineering & Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University. His research fields are New Institutional Economics, Environmental and Resource Economics, Regulation & Public Policy, and Law & Economics. This year he will be teaching courses on Regulation, on the Economics of the Firm, Environmental Economics, as well as Microeconomic Theory and Introductory Microeconomics.

Kathi Seifert to speak

Former Kimberly-Clark Executive Vice President Kathi Seifert will speak on Thursday, March 5th at 4:30 in Briggs 223 about NEW North, a north-east Wisconsin organization whose mission is “to harness and promote the region’s resources, talents and creativity for the purposes of sustaining and growing our regional economy.” Ms. Seifert was recently named to Fortune magazine’s list of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Business, and was also named to Forbes.com’s annual list of “America’s Top Businesswomen.”

All are welcome–snacks will be served.

LSB Investment Management Workshop

Is there a future in Investment Management for you? Come find out more about it at the LSB Investment Management workshop on Sunday, February 22nd at 1:45 in Briggs 223. Four very successful Lawrence alumni will share their experience: Chuck Saunders ’84 (Partner and Senior Portfolio Manager, NorthRoad Capital Management, LLC), Bruce Loder ’82 (V.P. Investments/Branch Manager, Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Inc.), Larry Domash ’81 (Partner/Member, Ronin Capital), and Markus Specks ’06 (Financial Analyst, Goldsmith, Agio, Helms & Lynner). This event will be part of the “Shine Light, More Light on Your Future!” conference.