E&M: Creative Destruction

Whether it is Blockbusters, Nokia, Blackberry, Woolworths or Borders, all E&M pupils should have a good understanding of the gales of creative destruction (Schumpeter) as an important force in capitalism and innovation.

Read this BBC article on how the creator of Netflix is taking on cinemas with the below-cost provision of MoviePass, which essentially provides movies all month long for just $9.95 a month. Examine this as a business strategy and discuss the pros and cons of it. How should AMC respond?

AI: Moral dilemmas

Moral dilemmas are common questions for PPEists at interview. 

They show a candidate's ability to think about things in a way that shows that not only can they be analytical, but also reflective and philosophical. 

A strong PPEist is able to explore the hinterland around truth and absolutes.

In 1942, Isaac Asimov provided one prevailing take on robot morality with the three laws of robotics featured in his famous novel I, Robot. His outline was simple: A robot may not injure a human being, or through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. But, as the characters discover in the novel, sometimes harm is simply unavoidable. What if the question instead mutates to what is preferable, letting the young or old live or sacrificing one to save many?

Here we discuss the famous philosophical dilemma known as the Trolley Dilemma:

Whilst this is an age-old philosophical problem, AI programmers face it in a 21st century way - driverless cars. 

Here is a neat MIT interactive game that requires you to choose between different scenarios, resulting in a social preference conclusion, on gender, age, occupation biases. 

Read more on the issue here - and don't forget to read the comments at the bottom of the article so you can get a deeper sense of some of the debate.

AI: Who owns the IP of a work of art created by AI?

Questions around Artificial Intelligence (AI) are common for PPE interviews. 

They combine the defining issue of our time in the sphere of technological change in sectors that have moral implications. The creation and advancement of AI embodies this, as does gene therapy.

Read this article at the World Economic Forum to get some analysis on the issue of ownership of anything created by AI.

Failing companies...

Failing start-ups...

Take some time to read this article on recent failed start-ups. These companies raised millions in their fundraising rounds, and yet failed. 

As part of your prep for an interview for E&M, I would pick one of these and try to dig deeper as to what went wrong. 

Think of your own reasons too - what causes companies that look like they are going to be the next Facebook, to falter?

New 'The Economy' Digital Textbook

A new digital textbook produced (free download here - classic public good characteristics!) by the CORE project. It looks very user friendly and covers some of the major economics theoretical (and applied) topics in an accessible way. Worth a read to the newcomer for sure.

The economics behind the market for organs

The market for organs is very interesting to analyse - it covers a range of issues pertinent to PPEists in particular.

If you are interested in knowing more about these sorts of markets, I would highly recommend reading Al Roth's Who Gets What and Why?

Here are some of the questions that come to mind. Make an attempt at answering them, and then read up on Roth's work to try to refine your answers.

- What is it about organ donations that make the market different from other transactional market places like a bookshop?

- What are the pros and cons of using the price mechanism to allocate organs in the organ donation market?

- What are better ways in allocating organs?

- Why is it important to improve the efficiency in this market place?

- Research what terms like 'repugnant', 'thick' markets, 'uncongested', 'safe' markets mean to help you talk about market design more intelligently.

This Quartz article on Roth and the applications of market design is great to come up with different applications of his principles. 

To learn more about Market Design watch one of his YouTube talks below. This first one is from the LSE in June 2017.

SCARCITY - A BOOK REVIEW

“Scarcity” was published in 2013, written by Sendhil Mullainathan, professor of Economics at Harvard, and Eldar Shafir, professor of Psychology and Public Affairs at Princeton.

Read a review of it here.

INNOVATION NEED NOT BE DISRUPTIVE

A great blog from a friend Howard Miller on the role of technology, particularly fintech, helping developing countries out. Read more here.

Moral Hazard

Firemen in Sicily have been creating fires, to be paid cash to put them out.

Read about it here and then answer the following questions.

Questions:

- What is wrong about the design of the firemen's contract?

- Explain the concept of MORAL HAZARD

- How would your re-design their contract to minimise this risk?

- Are there any other examples of moral hazard you can think of that you may have come across?

GENE EDITING

If you could edit an embryo's genes to create the perfect person, would you?

Watch here.

BEHAVIOURAL ECONOMICS 101

Behavioural Economics 101: Judgment, Choice and Time - a great introduction on 6 pages here.

Lowenstein's introduction

Economics of Crime

A good LSE enrichment podcast lecture here on the economics of crime, the economic incentives behind crime and the impact this has on the labour market and policing.

Listen to it here.