Ben Bernanke Blog

I used to work for the retail store Gordman's the summer before my sophomore year of college. I worked around 6 am Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unloading a truck full of new supplies. I would open the boxes of supplies and then hang the clothes and tag other home supplies. I also worked at a cash register about twice a week depending on when they would schedule me. After a couple of weeks of working in the store, I was acquainted with most of the staff and new how to do my job fairly well. Working as a cashier I mostly only talked with my customers. However, on days when I unloaded the truck I would be in the same room with the same people for about 5 hours. The conflict that arose reached a critical point around a month into starting this job and involved the crew who unloaded the truck. One of my coworkers, Gary is his alias, was in his 50's and was a lot older than the rest of us. Three of us that worked unloading the truck were about college aged and one other person was...

In my current job there is more than enough gift exchange happening each day. I work for the Illinois video crew filming the football team's practices and games. Before each practice and game it is necessary to set up the cameras and test them at least an hour before the football team starts practice or a game. There are a variety of cameras that need to be set up, but most of them can be set up within ten minutes and tested within another ten minutes. This usually leaves some spare time before any actual game play and filming. The video crew consists of around twelve workers. Ten of us film on different types of cameras while two of us format SD cards and edit film on the inside and don't actually film. Also, only half of us film the entire practice while the others only film certain parts of practice. And each worker only works six games, including four home games and two away games. In the video crew each of us cannot make it on time an hour before practice every day to se...

I find that most of the decisions I make are only slightly motivated by reducing income risk. Most of the decisions I have made in college are because they are convenient and seem right in the here and now. For example, I chose to major in Economics my sophomore year after being in DGS my freshman year. My decision to major in Economics wasn't  motivated by the potential future employment it offered. My decision to major in Economics was because I really enjoyed economics. At the time of me choosing my major it seemed like a good idea to major in something I enjoyed. I would argue that there are other majors out there that I could have done, but didn't because I wouldn't enjoy them in the here and now. However, they would probably reduce my income risk after college, like accounting. However, I also decided to minor in business to gain more experience in a range of fields. I did this to reduce the risk of potentially not being able to find a job after college. The decision ...

There are a few themes that I habitually mention throughout my posts. The first major theme that I generally have throughout my posts is mentioning transaction costs. I have gone into depth how transaction costs play a role in almost all of the organizations I'm involved with. For example, I mention working for the dining hall and there are transaction costs for workers being managed by two different authorities. This theme was also present in my post where I talked about working for the Illinois football video team. For the video team there is a different kind of organization, but there is still a dual authority in place. Like in my dining hall job, there are also transaction costs that arise form working under a dual authority. Another theme that I see in my posts is opportunism. I focused an entire post on how I could have acted opportunistically, but decided not to in relation to having to pay an Uber driver extra. However, the theme of opportunism taking place at work was al...

Hypothetically, the University of Illinois could use "Illinibucks" to satisfy students demand to move to the head of the line for different activities. One such activity is registering for classes. Everyone wants to schedule their classes as early as possible, but many freshman and sophomore students are stuck with undesirable class times like 8 or 9 am. Also, students will want to register for classes that are already filled and their only option is to be added to the waiting list. With the introduction of Illinibucks, students could use them to move to the head of registration. This concept would be interesting and the activity of priority registration would probably be in high demand. Another instance where the University could use Illinibucks is for signing up for dorms. Similarly to registering for classes, many students don't always get their first choice when signing up for a dorm. Many freshman who would rather secure a favorable dorm than compete with the huge de...

I was hired in the beginning of 2017 by the Illinois football team. I currently work for the video department of the football team. I film the football team's training camp, practices, and games. Illinois football video is a small team, but still has an invaluable job. When this job is performed well the coaches are happy and it helps our football team succeed. The structure of the video department is like that of the dual authority team discussed in B&D. I report to two bosses who are the director of football video and director of coaches video. Both my bosses have authority over me and supervise me throughout practice or a game. Usually at the start of practice, one of my bosses is on the field and the other is in the office working on film. Halfway through they switch and than my other boss is supervising and performing certain tasks on the field. The rest of the video team reports to the two bosses. However, there is an informal structure based on how "new" the ...

A few weeks ago, when I was at a friend's apartment it got late and I requested a Uber on their app. My friend lives in an apartment complex that has many buildings in a secluded area. There is however, only one road that leads into the area. That main road then leads to multiple roads that go to different apartment buildings.  My phone died shortly before the Uber's estimated time of arrival so I decided to wait outside. After a while no one came to pick me up. I stood in the street looking for any cars driving by worrying that they went to the wrong apartment building.  After waiting for around 5 minutes a car finally started driving by me, but from a different apartment building heading towards the main road to leave the area. I ran them down and they stopped. I asked if they were my Uber and they said yes. Without thinking, I hopped in the car and buckled my seat belt. However, my Uber driver explained to me she had already cancelled the Uber because she couldn't find m...