pq-Formula
We want to find $a_1$ and $a_2$ using only $p$ and $q$
Smart Quotas
While equal rights could be viewed as an issue of the past (at least in most developed countries), equal opportunity is still an open issue. In a free market wages and hiring decisions are not up to the law and thus equal rights are not enough to guarantee equal opportunity. While wages for equal work can be achieved with transparency and public pressure, it is much more difficult to quantify hiring discrimination. For this reason many people argue for a quota to actually affect these decisions with written law, so that injustices could be tried in court.
Economics 101
Utility Everyone has preferences. In some sense it defines what being alive means and I tend to view preferences as axioms. They are also treated as axioms in economics. But what are preferences?
Formally preferences are a binary relation on the set of possible world states. The greater or equal symbol “≥” is such a binary relation for example and a good intuition for what we are getting at. We then make certain assumptions about this relation:
First of all we assume connexity (also called “completeness”). This just means that we can compare any two world states, which means that for any two world states A and B, we either “weakly prefer A over B” (A ≿ B) or we “weakly prefer B over A” or both.
Categorizing Financial Instruments
This article is supposed to be a crash course in financial markets. Discussing the most important financial instruments with their intended usage and some of their unintended usage.
Fixed Costs are Increasing
I claim that every innovation in human history has decreased the share of variable costs and increased the share of fixed costs. In support of this claim, take a random sample of technologies, e.g. the list of practical technologies on wikipedia:
A Recipe for Endless War
On sunday the game of the “Hooligan Eagles” against the “LesserEvil Hawks” is taking place. The city decided, in order to protect the police, it will not send in police to enforce a peaceful game. Instead, it intends to supply the fans of the “LesserEvil Hawks” with handguns so they can protect themselves against the often violent fans of the “Hooligan Eagles”.
When the referee takes one of the Hooligan Eagles players off the field for a foul, the camera pans to an increasingly rowdy crowd of Eagle fans close to the Hawks fan section.
CO2 Budget Model
This is a quick and dirty embedding of an older shiny app you can also access in full size
The Economic Impact of Climate Neutrality
How much does it cost to become Carbon Neutral? Is it feasible? Or is it too radical? I think that many people paint a grimmer picture than necessary. In fact I would go so far as to say we can solve climate change in our lunch break. Let me explain…
A Better Education System
Education is one of those topics, which everyone has an opinion on, and reforms are proposed every other day. In Germany it is even worse, as education is state’s jurisdiction, so multiply the mess by 16. So, is this just another proposal which claims to be much better than any others proposed before?
Why Certificates are the Right Tool for Limiting CO2 Emission
First of all: A tax and certificate system is equivalent to some degree. The main difference is that taxes set prices while certificates set quantities. But more on that later. And since taxes are easier to understand I will start with explaining them.