It’s been about 7 years since I last wrote about the economics of solar eclipses. A lot has changed since then, but one thing remains constant: eclipses are a big deal. This year, an estimated 5 million people will travel in the US to see the April 8th, 2024 total solar eclipse, and that number … More Solar Eclipse 2024 Dynamics
In a recent segment of NPR’s “Wait, Wait… Don’t Tell Me!”, Nobel Prize-winning economist Claudia Goldin was asked half-jokingly if all economists marry other economists. Not exactly, she responded: “It’s not all economists married to other economists; there are very few female economists in a various age groups, and a disproportionate number of those are … More Proportional Statistics
“Ghost kitchens” skyrocketed in popularity at the end of the 2010s. These online-only restaurants operate out of commercial kitchens with no storefront, lowering barriers to entry for new food spots and leveraging newly-formed food delivery networks and social media to grow their customer base. While initial concepts were promising, the end of low interest rates … More Ghost Kitchens get Ghosted
I’m a fan of zero-based budgeting because of its simplicity: Income – Expenses = 0. This means you account for everything, saving and spending, when setting your budget. As a result, you make sure savings is a key priority for your long-term goals instead of becoming an afterthought. What goes into a zero-based budget? The … More Zero-Based Budgeting
There were a lot of notable bankruptcies in 2023. This ranged from the biggest bank failures since the Great Recession (Silicon Valley Bank) to former startup titans (WeWork), longstanding American brands (Bed Bath & Beyond, Yellow), and US subsidiaries of massive international companies (Evergrande). To wrap up the year, let’s dive into some of the … More 2023 and Bankruptcies
Why don’t we use half dollar coins or $2 bills in everyday transactions? Convenience shapes our demand for money. Beyond the worlds of currency supply/demand or collectible coins, let’s investigate the literal choices for why people prefer one physical form of US currency over another. First, why might people choose physical money over digital options? … More The Demand for (Physical) Money
There’s been a lot of buzz around collective action recently. From threatened strikes at UPS and hospitals across the nation, walkoffs from Los Angeles city workers and United Auto Workers (UAW), and a near-record battle in Hollywood (where the WGA and SAG unions have gone on strike together for the first time in nearly 60 … More Collective Action Takes Center Stage
Zoom made headlines this week for announcing its own “return to office” policy, requiring all workers within a 50-miles radius of an office to commute at least 2 times a week. It’s certainly ironic for a company that massive expanded thanks to remote work. It’s also not the only one. Across industry and geography, companies … More Where to Work, and Why?
Have you checked the price of a Big Mac recently? It’s a fascinating indicator for our purchasing power in the United States. I use data from the US Department of Labor and The Economist’s Big Mac Index to calculate how many Big Macs the average minimum-wage US worker could afford from 1 hour of gross … More Econ in the News: (Big Mac) Food for Thought
Why does the “save” icon continue to look like a floppy disk? Why do we offer a handshake to people we meet? It’s the same reason that virtual “trash” icons look like real-world trash cans, why car turn signals make a clicking sound, or why we use “tin foil” in the kitchen when it’s made … More Social Vestigial Structures
Andrew Jabara 