Economics in Action

As part of my course, I do quite a lot of reading on Adam Smith at the moment. One thing that I came across is the notion of self-interest, which is completely different from the selfishness that people tend to think about when they read Smith.

According to Adam Smith, people have different motives for their actions, one of which is self-interest or self-love. It is important to note that Smith did provide a distinction between them. People are selfish if they act purely to gain for themselves. This involves the taking of more than one’s ‘fair share’. Smith actively condemned this behaviour in his writing:

‘…all for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.’

On the other hand, self-interested people do have other people’s interests in their mind. Self-interest is the interest in the well-being of the self. It is only a part of what people consider when they decide whether or not to act. Therefore, Smith thinks it is not logical to condemn this behaviour. It is not wrong if an individual wants to buy a new shirt for himself. He clearly acts upon his self-interest, but he is not selfish unless he stole the money in order to purchase the shirt.

Smith wrote that we benefit from the self-interest of the butcher, brewer and baker, and it is clear from his writing as a whole that, because they are self-interested, the butcher, brewer and baker look out for themselves; however, because they are not selfish, they also care for their customers. It is this kind of self-interest (not selfishness) that leads to social improvement.

Recently, the Centre for Economic Performance (CEP) celebrated its 21^st Birthday by holding a series of lectures at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). The chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, Olivier Blanchard, gave the first lecture on the state of the world economy. Last Tuesday, the second lecture of the series was given by Professor John Van Reenen on the topic of restoring economic growth.

The Economics Network received an invitation to attend both lectures, and as a new guy on the job, I was appointed to go. However, being a second year student with a very busy schedule means I could only attend one of the lectures. Since I was doing economic growth as part of my macro course, I decided to go to the latter lecture.

I arrived in London quite late, but managed to quickly find my way to the lecture theatre in the LSE’s Old Building where the talk was held. The CEP has reserved a front row seat for me, so not only did I have the best view; I also managed to take many photos. There was a brief introduction of John Van Reenen by Stuart Corbridge before the lecture started.

John divided the lecture into three sections: Read the rest of this entry »

There is a very interesting article on BBC News that my colleague Inna has referred me to. It talks about how the small bottled water industry has managed to grow in the last 40 years. This looks nothing special unless you think about the fact that water is essentially free. You can quite easily drink tap water and will not feel any difference from the bottled water. However, people still spend billions of pounds each year on this natural beverage. So here is the irony, we are paying for things we can get for free. Is economic theory about rationality failing here? It is not according to the article.

So, where does the trick lie? Apparently, it is all about branding and marketing (although some bottles water executives disagree). Apart from the convenient packaging, people are supposedly buying trendy brands. I guess in the end we do derive different types of utility from the same resource. Marketing in this case plays a huge role in the market growth.

This paradox does not completely ruin our perception of Economics, but it does make us realise that there are still many things we do not understand.

Game theory is one of the most exciting fields in modern Economics. Yesterday, we started the lecture on Game theory by watching a clip from the Oscar-winning A Beautiful Mind. In the scene, Russell Crowe’s Nash proves that the First Welfare Theorem of Economics does not always hold, and there are circumstances when competition does not lead to a Pareto efficient outcome.

‘Adam Smith is wrong,’ proclaims Nash after deducing that if everyone competes for the attention of the blonde girl, no one will end up with that girl. The ‘invisible hand’ does not work in this situation. So, he advised his friends to go for the brunettes. This result is not, however, one of the Nash equilibria, which predict that one guy will eventually end up with the blonde, while the others will be with the brunettes.

This example shows the power of Economics, and how simple ideas can affect our lives in every single way, be it politics or love. This is why studying Economics is so interesting, and at the same time, so useful for you.

A Beautiful Blonde!

Here is the first article we received from Josh Taylor – our new contributor.

As a student of Economics and a political neutral, the recession has been particularly interesting, with the revelations of how much debt we as a country are in. This is not just governmental overspending revenue incomes, but the public and the culture of buying now paying later on credit. For proof you only have to watch TV for an hour or so and you’ll be amazed at how many advertisements (ok not BBC) there are for quick-money, consolidating your debt etc. The conservatives and now the newly-informed liberal-democrats are for reducing the debt of the nation, by limiting the size of governmental spending i.e. “The Cuts”, I don’t intend to get into any sort of political debate as to whether we need to cut or not, but the nation’s majority have decided democratically that this is the way that we are going to get out of this “crisis”.

But, I can’t but help see the contradiction in raising university fees at this moment in time. Read the rest of this entry »

As part of the ongoing development of Why Study Economics and Studying Economics, we are now looking for student contributors. Because the websites are aimed at Economics applicants and students respectively, we think it is very important for us to have students’ views reflected in our content.

The content provided can be in any format about anything related to Economics: current affairs and politics to day-to-day activities, such as analysis of economic concepts in movies and music. We also encourage entries about the social life of Economics students. Most entries will go to Economics in Action blog, but there is a possibility to write a material for other sections of the websites.

Being a contributor for us will be beneficial for you in many ways. Firstly, if you want to pursue journalism, this is a great way to start. The websites are very popular with lecturers and students, so you will have an audience. If you become a frequent contributor, we will make sure your name appears on the websites, and this will look great on your CVs. Finally, writing something contemporary and interesting will widen your views about Economics as well as distract you from all the maths you have to do for your course.

If you are interested, please email Anh with your details and a possible entry. We can also discuss what sort of material you would want to write or feel comfortable writing.