Economics Commons^™

The Economy, Emotions, And Japanese City Pop In The 1980s, Paige Drummond

CAFE Symposium 2025

This project contains research about the topics of economy, emotions, music, urbanization, and Japanese City Pop all during the 1980s. It shows the connections between all of these subjects and how they relate back to the City Pop genre. Common themes of City Pop songs are also explored and delved into by comparing songs and analyzing their lyrics, melodies, and topics.

The Economics Of Large Language Models: Token Allocation, Fine-Tuning, And Optimal Pricing, Dirk Bergemann, Alessandro Bonatti, Alex Smolin

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We develop an economic framework to analyze the optimal pricing and product design of Large Language Models (LLM). Our framework captures several key features of LLMs: variable operational costs of processing input and output tokens; the ability to customize models through fine-tuning; and high-dimensional user heterogeneity in terms of task requirements and error sensitivity. In our model, a monopolistic seller offers multiple versions of LLMs through a menu of products. The optimal pricing structure depends on whether token allocation across tasks is contractible and whether users face scale constraints. Users with similar aggregate value-scale characteristics choose similar levels of fine-tuning …

Optimal Pricing Of Cloud Services: Committed Spend Under Demand Uncertainty, Dirk Bergemann, Michael C. Wang

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We consider a seller who offers services to a buyer with multi-unit demand. Prior to the realization of demand, the buyer receives a noisy signal of their future demand, and the seller can design contracts based on the reported value of this signal. Thus, the buyer can contract with the service provider for an unknown level of future consumption, such as in the market for cloud computing resources or software services. We characterize the optimal dynamic contract, extending the classic sequential screening framework to a nonlinear and multi-unit setting. The optimal mechanism gives discounts to buyers who report higher signals, …

How Even Luxury Housing Can Help Solve The Housing Shortage, Kathleen Bolter

Reports

No abstract provided.

Geoffrey Harcourt Et Al., Anwar Shaikh Phd

Archives of Anwar Shaikh

This collection includes:

• Letter to Harcourt asking for comments on a paper Shaikh was submitting to The Review of Economics and Statistics (May 31, 1972)

• Letter from Harcourt discussing Shaikh’s paper and mentioning his book The Cambridge Controversies (July 20, 1972)

• Letter to Harcourt thanking him for his comments on Shaikh’s paper (October 11, 1972)

• Letter requesting a copy of Shaikh’s Transformation paper (May 31, 1973)

• Letter from Harcourt stating that with some editing, Shaikh’s paper would be published in Australian Economic Papers (May 14, 1974)

• Letter from Harcourt announcing …

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Joan Robinson Et Al. 1, Anwar Shaikh Phd

Archives of Anwar Shaikh

This collection includes:

• Letter from Joan Robinson discussing Shaikh’s paper on trade and Ricardo’s theory of profits

• Letter from Robinson discussing publication possibilities and agreeing with Shaikh’s “humbug” thesis (July 5, 1972)

• Letter to Robinson discussing the paper’s submission to The Review of Economics and Statistics and Franklin Fisher’s letter (October 13, 1972)

• Letter from Robinson discussing Fisher’s misplaced faith and micro system (October 25, 1972)

• Letter from Robinson discussing Shaikh’s article on the transformation problem and recommending submission to The Economic Journal where she had influence (May 23, 1973)

• Letter from …

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El Humor, Anwar Shaikh Phd

Archives of Anwar Shaikh

This collection includes:

• Comic titled Salón de Dibujos Humorísticos

• Notes in Spanish about humor and Cuba

Joan Robinson Et Al. 2, Anwar Shaikh Phd

Archives of Anwar Shaikh

This collection includes:

• Letter to Bertram Schefold discussing travel expenses and an honorarium

• Postcard from Ei Nagakudo(?) thanking Shaikh for his political economy classes and recommending an internship at the UN (3/18/98)

• Card from Mara Kaufman thanking Shaikh for allowing her to sit in on one of his political economy courses

• Flyer for the New School featuring Shaikh

• Watercolor painting

• Letter from Diana

• Receipt for a $10 submission fee for the paper The So-Called ‘Transformation Problem’: Marx Vindicated

• Flyer for Karl Marx’s birthday with lyrics for The International

• Flier advertising a Karl Marx pub crawl (5/1/99)

• Excerpt from Karl Liebknecht’s …

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Greek & Lustig, Anwar Shaikh Phd

Archives of Anwar Shaikh

This collection includes:

• Greek newspaper article featuring an interview with Prof. Shaikh with the headline “There is no apparent overcoming of the crises” (October 5, 2008)

• Letter to Nora Lustig in Mexico City discussing Shaikh’s plans for the next year, his current difficulties in learning Spanish, and his plans to work on his book during a planned leave of absence; he also accepts Lustig’s invitation to a conference in Mexico City (March 27, 1979)

Ias Nsf Proposals, Anwar Shaikh Phd

Archives of Anwar Shaikh

This collection includes:

• A project proposal submitted to the Institute for Advanced Study (February 1981).

• A research proposal submitted to the National Science Foundation (December 10, 1976) with a budget and Professor Shaikh’s CV.

Robust Pricing For Cloud Computing, Dirk Bergemann, Rahul Deb

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We study the robust sequential screening problem of a monopolist seller of multiple cloud computing services facing a buyer who has private information about his demand distribution for these services. At the time of contracting, the buyer knows the distribution of his demand of various services and the seller simply knows the mean of the buyer’s total demand. We show that a simple “committed spend mechanism” is robustly optimal: it provides the seller with the highest profit guarantee against all demand distributions that have the known total mean demand. This mechanism requires the buyer to commit to a minimum total …

The Parenthood Gap: Firms And Earnings Inequality After Kids, Rebecca Jack, Daniel Tannenbaum, Brenden Timpe

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

We document the dynamics of career paths around parenthood, capturing worker advancement within firms and across firms with differing pay rates. Using a new linkage between administrative data on U.S. workers’ fertility and labor market histories, we show that the parental earnings gap is partly explained by mothers transitioning to lower-paying firms. Firm downgrading is driven by parents who take an extended absence from the labor force. Mothers who move to lower-paying firms see improved job amenities but less generous fringe benefits. The firm’s contribution to the parental earnings gap rises over time and reaches one-third by the child’s 11th …

"Long-Run Peer Effects And Promotion: Evidence From 70-Plus Years Of Career Records In Japan, Natsuki Arai, Nobuhiko Nakazawa

Economics Faculty Publications

Arai and Nakazawa estimate long-term peer effects in the workplace by investigating whether working with a future executive makes junior employees more likely to be promoted. Using data on career history at the Japanese central administration from 1946 to 2019, we find that long-term peer effects are substantial and persistent—junior employees who work with a future executive during the first 5 years of their employment are more likely to be promoted to top executive than employees who do not. The empirical results are consistent with the mechanisms of increased human capital, the formation of social connections, and a reduction in …

Correspondence, Anwar Shaikh Phd

Archives of Anwar Shaikh

This collection includes:

• New Year card from Vojo Franičević (December 20, 1979)

• Letter from Paul Zarembka thanking Shaikh for sending his paper but declining its publication (June 21, 1978)

• Letter from Walter H. Lippincott, Jr. regarding Cambridge University Press’s decision to cancel the contract with Professor Nell for the publication of Growth, profits, and property (May 25, 1979)

• Message from Sidney J. Gluck to the department registrar regarding a registration issue (February 28, 1979)

• Letter from Craufurd D. Goodwin rejecting Shaikh’s paper on the transformation problem (January 25, 1974)

• From Goodwin: “Referee’s comments on ‘The so-called transformation problem: Marx vindicated’” …

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Personal Correspondence, Anwar Shaikh Phd

Archives of Anwar Shaikh

This collection includes:

• Postcard from Ellen Streger showing an ironic picture of a Mustang and roadside diner, and another showing the cover of a vintage book.

• Postcard from María José showing Rothko 1268.67 with a message of love (July 27, 1999).

• Postcard from Nagakubo in the UK thanking Shaikh for his contribution and wishing him well.

• Letter from Ewen Streger expressing condolences.

• Postcard from Ellen.

• Postcard from Ellen with cat faces illustrating her reactions to being secretary of a conference, along with a note and Polaroid black-and-white film.

• Postcard from Jennifer and Alex showing the kitchen at Graceland, discussing their …

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China, Anwar Shaikh Phd

Archives of Anwar Shaikh

This collection includes:

• Notes with addresses for three people in China (no date).

• Letter from Patricia Jones Tsuchitani requesting nominations for the 1986–1987 Visiting Scholar Exchange Program (October 4, 1985).

• Program announcement and application for the 1986–1987 Visiting Scholar Exchange Program (1985).

• Application for the 1986–1987 Visiting Scholar Exchange Program (no date).

• Letter from Jianxiong Zhang inviting Shaikh to have his articles translated and published in China (July 12, 1985).

• Letter to Jianxiong Zhang agreeing to the publication of Shaikh’s articles in China (February 27, 1986).

• Letter to Yu Yong Ding discussing the delivery of policy means (December 5, 1985). …

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Tipflation: The Conflagration Of Inflation And Out-Of-Control Tip Requests, Gil Katzman, Lisa N. Cain

ICHRIE Research Reports

This data-supported opinion piece seeks to shed light on the growing phenomenon of tipflation, examine how this influences customers, and suggest alternatives to current tipping practices. To support the concepts highlighted, a simple survey consisting of seven pointed questions were asked of participants to discern their thoughts on current tipping trends. Participants were also asked to disclose their age and whether they had worked in a tipped position previously to determine if these factors influenced responses. Findings reveal that those who worked as tipped employees exercised different practices toward tipping than those who did not. Technological solutions, policy changes, and …

Essays In Industrial Organization, Nilesh Kumar Jain

Doctoral Theses

This thesis contains three chapters on industrial organization, covering two distinct topics. Chapters 1 and 2 examine the impact of firm owner's corruption on the organization, while Chapter 3 analyzes the market dynamics of a two-sided newspaper market.\medskip The first chapter investigates the agency conflict that arises when the principal (the owner) of a firm is involved in corruption. A corruptible principal has an incentive to conceal his or her illegal activities, while the agent (CEO or manager), due to their information advantage, is in a position to monitor this corruption, thus creating an agency conflict. We show that such …

Ecological Influences On Informal Property Rights: Experimental Evidence, Erik O. Kimbrough

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

This paper explores the possibility that informal property right systems evolve unique features as a function of the characteristics of the resources over which they are established. We develop an experimental environment that allows us to test this hypothesis by comparing the emergence of property in (virtual) land when resource yields are either high- or low-variance and renewable or non-renewable. Previous research suggests that high-variance resources may lead to relatively insecure claims to property. Intuition suggests that this may be amplified when those resources are renewable. The experiments confirm that informal property rights adapt to resource characteristics in a manner …

Ripples Of Revolution: Analyzing Political And Socioeconomic Shifts In Mena During The Arab Uprisings, Khalid Zaman

Arab Economic and Business Journal

The study analyzes the impact of political instability on five MENA nations during the Arab Spring (2010-2022). It examines how corruption, unemployment, health spending, and economic development influence political instability. The panel fixed-effects regression approach is used as it accounts for time-invariant variables inside each cross-sectional unit and gives robust temporal analysis. Findings indicate that the Arab Spring heightened political instability (i.e., β = 0.249, p

Correspondence, Anwar Shaikh Phd, Glen Rosselli

Archives of Anwar Shaikh

This collection includes:

• Letter from Martin H. Wolfson requesting Prof. Shaikh mail him a paper and noting that Wolfson’s own book would be published soon (April 30, 1986)

• Letter to Wolfson discussing his presentation at a recent New School conference

• Letter from Leonardo E. Auslender discussing some of Shaikh’s papers presented in a seminar on Theory of Production and Income Distribution (December 12, 1985)

• Letter to Auslender thanking him for his letter (May 20, 1986)

• Letter to Ann Harding discussing the Australian welfare state (January 28, 1986)

• Letter from Harding discussing Shaikh’s work in translating statistics into Marxian contexts (October …

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Correspondence, Anwar Shaikh Phd

Archives of Anwar Shaikh

This collection includes:

• Letter from John Weeks discussing two short papers he recently wrote (March 5, 1985)

• Letter to Weeks discussing Shaikh’s marriage as well as his work on Marxian economic theory (October 10, 1986)

• Letter from Ernest Mandel discussing the criticism he had received of the book Ricardo, Marx, Sraffa (May 18, 1987)

• Letter from Mandel requesting a follow-up from the previous letter and discussing a petition (September 18, 1987)

• Letter to Mandel discussing work on the Marxian treatment of effective demand and accumulation (January 7, 1987)

• Handwritten draft of that letter to Mandel (December 26, 1986)

• Letter from …

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Gender Inequality And Productivity Impact In Egypt, Hammad Elsaid Omar

The Undergraduate Research Journal

This study examines the relationship between gender inequality in Egypt's workforce and productivity across various sectors. Utilizing a comparative research design, the analysis employs quantitative data from sources such as the World Bank and the International Labor Organization. Key indicators of gender inequality—including the gender pay gap, the percentage of women in managerial positions, and female labor force participation rates—are correlated with productivity metrics like GDP per capita and productivity per employee (Figure 3). Findings reveal a strong negative correlation between the gender pay gap and productivity, with sectors exhibiting smaller pay disparities achieving higher productivity levels. Regression analysis indicates …

The Efficacy Of India's Electric Vehicle Market: Can Fame Deliver Results?, Douglas N. Hales, Gawon Yun, Devendra Kale

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

This commentary discusses the merits and demerits of India's FAME I II and III policy frameworks to promote the use of electric vehicles (EVs). FAME III is under consideration, and some suggestions are offered to improve its effectiveness.

Streaming Media Platforms And Film/Video Arts Distribution, Aras Ozgun, Andreas Treske

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

Streaming media platforms have emerged as new and natively digital forms of content delivery for mainstream news and entertainment media over the past decades. Underlying technologies also unfold new possibilities for the circulation artistic/creative digital video works. Yet, such potential remains relatively underexplored, due to the complexities involved in the public distribution of such works. In this study, we analyze these complexities and critically evaluate emerging models, such as open access streaming media platforms, subscription-based platforms, and cryptocurrency and NFT-based platforms that feature new administrative forms and governance strategies. We finally discuss the possible roles of traditional public cultural institutions …

The Kindle Ecosystem Of Overconsumption: The Digital Flâneuse Roaming Booktok E-Spaces, Valeria Baltodano

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

The development of a community and culture around reading on the social media platform has afforded women new avenues for empowerment through their earning and spending power. A tool wielded often in this mobile space, Amazon’s Kindle device has reached a new height of popularity thanks to the women in the bookish community of TikTok. This paper employs Anne Friedberg’s concept of the flâneuse in relation to the limitation of women’s empowerment through the commodification and aestheticization of reading on TikTok. It demonstrates how the Kindle has become the locus for a culture of overconsumption through which these women exercise …

Traversing Spaces: Virtual, Mediated, Entertaining, Commercial, And Geographic, Nikhilesh Dholakia, Deniz Atik, Delphine Godefroit-Winkel

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

No abstract provided.

How Partisanship Conditions The Attitudinal Policy Feedback Process, Chris Faricy, Christopher Ellis

Working Papers

No abstract provided.

The Economic Surplus: A History Of An Eventually Problematic Idea, Evan W. Osborne

Economics Faculty Publications

The economy-wide economic surplus, defined as output beyond what is needed to sustain the labouring workforce, is one of the oldest ideas in Western political economy. Marx permanently changed economic thinking by characterising it as exploitation. As confidence in government management of economic affairs grew in the twentieth century, how to spend the surplus better than free individuals would spend it themselves became a growing theme among economists and among the broader public. While the role of the surplus in economic theory today is modest, its vibrancy in the public conversation remains.

U.S. Infrastructure: 1929-2023, Ray C. Fair

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

This paper examines the history of U.S. infrastructure since 1929 and in the process reports an interesting fact about the U.S. economy. Infrastructure stock as a percent of GDP began a steady decline around 1970, and the government budget deficit became positive and large at roughly the same time. The infrastructure pattern in other countries does not mirror that in the United States, so the United States appears to be a special case. The overall results suggest that the United States became less future oriented beginning around 1970, an increase in the social discount rate. This change has persisted. This …