by Kevin Chiu, James Tsao and Michael Chow
Here’s a fun and interesting look into the market for basketball shoes. Three firms dominate this market, and they compete with each other not through price as much as through product differentiation and advertising, both characteristics of an oligopolistic market. This podcast will investigate the basketball shoe market [...]
Continue reading about SAS Economists Podcast #22: Basketball shoes »
Why has housing prices in China, particularly Shanghai been rising rapidly this past decade? Is it because the area of available land is decreasing? New rules set by the government? Influx of foreign investment? Improvements in services? The various causes of the current trend of housing prices will be discussed in this podcast featuring information [...]
Continue reading about SAS Economists Podcast #21: The Shanghai Housing Market »
So I was reading this article, “‘Not Quite Perfect’ McDonald’s Opens in Illinois Outlet Mall” about a McDonald’s outlet selling rejected and “imperfect” McDonald’s products. This sort of reminded me of price differentiation (even though it’s kind of different) since these supposedly similar in quality “imperfect” McDonald’s food products are being sold at a [...]
Continue reading about Green French Fries and M Shaped Burgers »
Leaving North Korea at Any Price
The title of this article really caught my attention. All my life, I’ve heard of North Korea referred to as “the world’s largest prison” and of terrifying escape stories. And, the any price caught my eye as well. My first thought was, the author definitely never took AP Economics. However, [...]
The NBA (National Basketball Association) has long since been the dominating professional basketball league in the world. One reason for its dominance is the lack of interest internationally for professional basketball jobs. However, as the 2007-2008 season kicks off, one can hardly fail to notice a new trend of offseason moves. Nope, this isn’t [...]
Continue reading about NBA slowly losing its iron fist on the basketball world »
At the moment, very few staple genetically modified food crops have been licensed for commercial growth, however, is this trend about to change its direction?
An article, titled “The Real GM Food Scandal,” argues that the side advocating GM foods is growing stronger and stronger, wheras the opponents of these genetically modified crops (referred to [...]
Continue reading about Demand and supply for genetically modified foods soon to rise? »
by Kevin Yeh and YunQi Mok
Why do too many cooks spoil the soup? A basic economic principle explains this old adage: the law of diminishing returns. In this interesting investigation Kevin and YunQi put this basic law to the test by challenging SAS students to perform a task given three different times, each time with [...]
SAS Economists Podcast #20: "Too many cooks spoil the soup" [6:08m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadContinue reading about SAS Economists Podcast #20: “Too many cooks spoil the soup” »
by Karen Chen and Tim Chu
If you are a woman, you love shoes… that is the hypothesis put forth by Karen and Tim in this podcast. However, a love of something does not always justify a seemingly limitless desire to buy more and more of it; this seems to contradict a basic economic principle: the [...]
SAS Economists Podcast #19: Why DO women have so many shoes? [9:12m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadContinue reading about SAS Economists Podcast #19: Why DO women have so many shoes? »
by Chris Seah and Howard Jing
Here at SAS iPods are as ubiquitous as lunch cards, cell phones, and calculators: you hardly see a student without those little white buds in their ears as they stroll onto campus in the morning. This podcast will examine the market for iPods here at SAS, and analyze the determinants [...]
SAS Economists Podcast #18: iPods and price elasticity of demand [11:12m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadContinue reading about SAS Economists Podcast #18: iPods and price elasticity of demand »
by Christina Hu and Jeewon Oh
Here’s another great look at a highly competitive market for, you guessed it, pirated goods in Shanghai: specifically, luxury handbags. Christina and Jeewon set out to discover whether the knock-off luxury bag is a normal, inferior, or, in fact, luxury good! Listen to this podcast for an entertaining journey into [...]
SAS Economists Podcast #17: Knock-off handbags in Shanghai [7:14m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadContinue reading about SAS Economists Podcast #17: Knock-off handbags in Shanghai »
Friday, November 16th, 2007
by Andy Xu, Charlie Gao
Friends all over the world, do you wish to learn about how a consumer surplus is gained EVERY time we purchase a good or service? Do we wish to how to visually express consumer and producer surpluses as areas in a supply and demand graph? Maybe you also want to know [...]
SAS Economists Podcast #16: How consumer surplus makes us a winner in every purchase! [7:24m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadFriday, November 16th, 2007
by Jon Lao and Conrad Liu:
This podcast examines the market for taxis in Shanghai, and attempts to determine whether consumer behavior in this market reflect the basic principle of the law of demand.
SAS Economists Podcast #15: Shanghai taxis, a supply and demand analysis [8:30m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadContinue reading about SAS Economists Podcast #15: Shanghai taxis, a supply and demand analysis »
Friday, November 16th, 2007
by Timothy Sun and Jacques Zhang
We’ll explore the principles of utility maximization through interviews with fellow students. Why do some consumers prefer to spend their money on different products than others? Some simple economic formulas explain the principles of consumer behavior.
Continue reading about SAS Economists Podcast #14: Consumer behavior and utility maximization »
The US Economy gets nailed by the trifecta: threat of housing, pricey oil and tightening credit.
As in my previous blog post mentioned, oil prices have surged increasingly high lately. Consumers and firms alike have been affected by the housing slide, increase oil prices, and tough credit. Not only are the consumers directly affected, but even [...]
Imitate or Die (The Economist)
This article doesn’t specifically talk about pure monopoly, but it offers a very interesting perspective on patents and reviews the concept of opportunity costs. The current phenomenon in China and India is that the technological aspect of these two economies is pretty much piggyback riding the innovations of other more developed [...]
Tuesday, November 13th, 2007
by Serena Tu and Julie Lin
Ever wonder why professional athletes make so much money? Well, the fact is, not all of them do. Female basketball players in the WNBA don’t make much more than the average American worker; basically, professional basketball for a woman is just like any other job: it’s enough to pay the [...]
SAS Economists Podcast #13: the WNBA vs. NBA, what's with the difference in player salaries? [4:13m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadTuesday, November 13th, 2007
by Richard Tu and Howard Lin
Another interesting investigation into the market for video game consoles. This podcast explores the price and non-price competition in the oligopolistic markets for video game consoles and video games.
Through interviews with student gamers, this podcast attempts to determine the relationship between the prices of video games and the demand for [...]
SAS Economists Podcast #12: Pirated video games and the market for gaming consoles [5:35m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadTuesday, November 13th, 2007
by Kathie Lee and Margaret Liu
Why do some people shop in certain clothing stores while other choose to shop in entirely different locations? What’s most important, price or quality?
This podcast surveys students at Shanghai American School to identify the most important factors that determine where we shop.
SAS Economists Podcast #11: Consumer preferences and fashion in Shanghai [5:21m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadContinue reading about SAS Economists Podcast #11: Consumer preferences and fashion in Shanghai »
Tuesday, November 13th, 2007
by Hansen Gu and Elaine Lung
Economics is not just for people living in the “real” world, you know! No it’s not. For some of us in high school, we actually prefer life in the fantasy World of Warcraft. And yes, there is a real economy in our world too. And yes, it does exhibit characteristics [...]
by Robert Wang and Mond Gu
Everyone’s heard of the “holy cow” from Southern Japan; the bovine that gets all that lovin’ and tastes ohh so good. Can it be true? Do they really feed their cows the finest grass and grain, the best of beers, and pamper them with massages all day long? Is this [...]
Continue reading about SAS Economists Podcast #9: Kobe Beef »
by Alice Su and Jessica Ng
Is it true what they say about the DVD market in China? Can you really buy fake DVDs on the streets for ONE DOLLAR? Come on, that’s a bit extreme, isn’t it? In fact, it’s not just under bridges and in dark alleys where you can buy pirated DVDs in [...]
Continue reading about SAS Economists Podcast #8 - Shanghai’s fake DVD market »
Saturday, November 10th, 2007
Facebook rolls out highly targeted Viral Ad System
Facebook. The first word that should come to mind is “network monopoly”. The second word should be “Facebook Ads”, because essentially, that’s what makes Facebook a network monopoly. Forget tangible gifts that are actually worth something, gimme them Facebook gifts! Oh by the way, did I mention [...]
Continue reading about In the world of Advertising, Facebook is their guru; the New Network Monopoly »
Thursday, November 8th, 2007
by Mina Song and Sharon Li
China’s horrendous traffic and its rising incomes prompted us to investigate automobiles and bicycles for this podcast. As China’s roads are filling up with more and more cars, we were also wondering whether the ubiquitous bicycles would undergo a change in sales too. This podcast will detail the income elasticity [...]
Wednesday, November 7th, 2007
by Annie Sung and Kristie Chung
Which do you prefer, the Wii? the XBox 360? the PS3? How about other video game consoles? Can you even think of any other video games consoles? Hmm… let’s see… how about the Sega? Wait, no, haven’t seen any of those in a while… what about the Atari? Oh, shoot, [...]
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