Author Archives: Ken

A new article on The Athletic (note, there is a paywall after a free trial) on competitive balance in the NBA: https://theathletic.com/1067413/2019/07/09/economists-weigh-in-on-the-competitive-balance-question-after-kawhi-leonards-decision-preserves-parity-for-now/ To summarize – there is no consensus on whether competitive balance matters to fans, whether it affects team … Continue reading →

One of my sabbatical projects has been to develop a new course on the economics of sports. This is nowhere near complete, but it is beginning to take shape – given my teaching schedule, it will likely not be offered … Continue reading →

Over the past month, I have noticed an increase in the frequency of calls to change how we teach intro courses in Economics. This is probably just a reflection of my Twitter feed and other sites that I visit, but … Continue reading →

A recent article in the Economics of Education Review suggests that this encourages students to major in Economics, especially if the paper is written on a topic not generally associated with Economics. Link to paper (gated) here. The only concern … Continue reading →

Many students in my first-year classes love to challenge the basic assumptions introduced in the Introduction to Microeconomics course. For those students, here is the Nobel Prize lecture of Richard Thaler, recently published in the American Economic Review: https://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1257/aer.108.6.1265 It … Continue reading →

For the 2018/19 year, I will be on sabbatical. While I will be around Laurier, I will not be teaching classes. What will I be doing on sabbatical? – that is still to be determined.

As of July 1st, I am no longer the Undergraduate Program Director in Economics at Laurier, and later this summer, I will also end my term as Undergraduate Program Director in Business. My primary focus this year is the redevelopment … Continue reading →