Tuesday's Assorted Links
Commute times, American ski monopolies, concert monopolies, a new minimum wage, and a total solar eclipse
Hi y’all! Here are five stories from this week that contained some neat applications of economic principles or are related to teaching:
Americans' average daily travel distance, mapped [Axios]
How monopoly and price discrimination are transforming the ski industry [The Economist]
Kid Rock calls Ticketmaster a monopoly that needs to be broken up [Whiskey Riff]
A highly contentious California law is about to raise the minimum wage for most fast-food workers in the state to $20 per hour, a 25% increase over the existing minimum wage [NPR]
The Niagara region of Canada has proactively declared a state of emergency to prepare for an expected 1 million visitors to view the eclipse next week [Reuters]
Daniel Kahneman wasn’t your typical economist. In fact, he never took an economics course in his life. His contributions, however, have shaped how economists view the notion of perfectly rational agents.
Understanding These 3 Behavioral Economics Concepts Can Improve Your Life
Why do we value saving $5 on a new book differently than saving $5 on a high-ticket item like a television? This behavior seems at odds with our understanding of rational economic behavior, but perhaps it’s not so odd when we consider how behavioral economists explain the decision. The difference in behavior is an example of mental accounting, a term that was influenced by the late Daniel Kahneman, whose brilliance we’re celebrating today.
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