Christopher Pissarides Econ 490 fall 2019

As I have previously discussed in another blog post, I used to work as a lifeguard for a park district back in my home town. One Saturday, I was watching my little brother play basketball for a league that was run through the same park district. About thirty minutes into the game, one of my managers found me and gave me a piece of paper with a number to call immediately. Upon calling, I heard my boss on the other side. I was informed that I was scheduled to work at that time and that I should get there as soon as possible if I wanted to keep my job. I got there as fast as I could and worked the remainder of the shift. At the next in-service, I was pulled aside and talked to by my boss. She spoke to me in a calm demeanor and told me that this was unacceptable since if they did not have enough lifeguards, they can not open the pool. She also told me that if there was not someone who could stay past the previous shift, she would have fired me; however, since this was my first offense, she

I believe the concept that connects all of these past blog posts is the idea of organizations which makes sense considering the class in named Econ of Organizations. While I did not write a post on structural change and transaction costs, I am able to see that these concepts show that there are sacrifices to be made if organizations want to move forward. Structural change can help optimize processes but might come at the cost of disorder during the transition period. Similarly transaction costs tells us that there are trade-offs in the market and it is important that what you are gaining is more beneficial than what you are losing. The post on opportunism presents the dilemma of an organization being able to gain an advantage or benefit but at the cost of disregarding ethics and potentially ruining their image. Blogging about the structure of teams shows me that an efficient, well working team is vital to the success of any organization as it allows for better performance at a lesser c

The concept of Illinibucks could be extremely beneficial for students who are looking to gain an edge in different areas of the university. The first issue that would need to be addressed is that of allocation. I believe that each student should be given an equal amount of Illinibucks so that the playing field is even. If there were a way to purchase them then that would simply give an advantage to wealthier students, leaving the rest in basically the same situation as before Illinibucks. In addition, things have to be assigned values in Illinibucks corresponding to their demand or importance to students. This way things that are almost essential such as gaining priority when registering for classes would cost more Illinibucks then maybe reserving a room at the library. The university could also adjust prices as they gain data on what students are spending their Illinibucks in in order to ensure that their system works effectively. If prices are too high then Illinibucks would rarely b

When I was in high school, I used to spend my summers working at the local park district as a lifeguard and swim instructor. There was sort of a dual managerial system in place where one boss dealt more with the lifeguards and the other was in charge of running the aquatics programs such as swim lessons. Under them were the pool and scheduling managers that oversaw and were basically in charge of each of the three pools since the two bosses had office work that required their attention. The bottom rung of the ladder were the lifeguards and swim instructors that made up the majority of the employees in the aquatics department with the only thing differentiating them was experience. At two of the pools, things ran mediocrely. Some of the guards were inexperienced, but some of them were just lazy and inattentive. While this is obviously not OK, they could get away with it as all of the lifeguards were essentially watching the same pool and others would pick up their slack. The t

Freshman year of college is a time for adjustment for most. Students have to get used to a new school, living away from home, a new way of learning, and taking a step into the "real" world. They have to start thinking about their futures more than ever before and that means taking advantage of opportunities that can lead to internships or even jobs down the line. One of the biggest opportunities on campus has to be the career fair, a place where companies from around the US try and recruit students for open positions. I, as a freshman, failed to take advantage of this opportunity. Looking back, I find this ridiculous and the reasons for not going even more so. As a freshman, I was very insecure. I was not accepted into the major of my choice, Computer Science, and as a result, was placed into pre-engineering. I feared I was not good enough to compete with the other students and was scared of trying. Honestly, I found the entire idea intimidating. Sometimes the biggest bar

     Christopher A. Pissarides is a British-Cypriot economist and a professor of economics at the London School of Economics. Born in Nicosia, Cyprus in 1948, he received his bachelor's in economics in 1970 and later his master's in 1971 at the University of Essex. He proceeded to go to the London School of Economics where he earned his PhD in 1973 and three years later he became a professor at the very same institution.    Pissarides specializes in the economics of labor markets, macroeconomic policy, economic growth, and structural change. He is most known for his work and contributions towards Search and Matching Theory which focuses on the interactions between the economy and labor markets. When firms look for employees, they do not immediately find what they need. It requires time and resources for them to find what need resulting in market friction. This friction often times leads to a less than ideal outcome. Pissarides's work has helped in theses types of scenari