In this class,
I learned the partial equilibrium and the general equilibrium which I never
heard from any other economics classes before. The partial equilibrium
efficiency concept is social surplus. An efficient allocation maximizes the
social surplus. In occurs where marginal benefit equals marginal costs. This
concept only occurred once in my undergraduate study time. At that time, I only
know the most efficient allocation of resources occurs in which marginal
benefit equals marginal cost. I did not really understand concept and graph
behinds the definition. The general equilibrium efficiency concept is Pareto
Optimality. An allocation is Pareto Optimal if you can’t make somebody better
off without somebody else worse. Originally, I did not notice how important
this concept was in making real world decision until another accounting
graduate level course also discussed this topic. We need to learn how to
calculate the Pareto Optimal combination by using the formulae, which is much
more difficult than just simply understand the concept in this class. At least,
I really appreciate this course discussed Pareto optimal concept first so that
I have a better understanding in the other class even though I am still
struggling with calculations.
In addition,
triangle principal-agent model is also a very interesting topic which open up
my point of view of the agency problem. Originally, I am only aware of a simple
principal-agent model problem which causes moral hazard and adverse selection
problems. Actually, in the real world, there are many cases agent would work
for two principals who have contradicted interests. Moreover, single loop
learning and double loop learning help me better understand how two different
types of organization conflicts occur. I believe that traditional companies or
industries would be more likely model 1 type while modern companies especially
high-tech companies would be more toward to model 2 type organizations since
model 2 boss would encourage employees to communicate their opinions.
I think this
pedagogic approach could work better if Professor Arvan could provide more
topics, bullet points and examples on power points to present in class, since
most time the whole class session acts like a casual live talk, we might
overlook some important ideas. For blog posts, I would always start with a
reading instruction which is very clear and helpful to initiate the
brainstorming process. If the key terms are new to me, I would google those
important terms first, or just look at other students’ blog posts to help me
understand the topic. And then I would start to think about the examples and
write down the thesis statements for body paragraphs. In the end, I would use
grammar check websites to proofread the whole work. Generally, it takes me
about one and a half hour to complete weekly post. For excel homework, I have
to say sometimes it is simple that only took me less than an hour to complete.
Sometimes it is extremely challenging, and it probably takes me couple days to
think about it. I have to google the terms first, read books, and even ask
friends. If I really could not figure out by above methods, I would ask
Professor Arvan as my final solution. Even though I complete the excel
homework, some of those work I still do not understand thoroughly.
Finally, I
would like to see more group discussion in class, not a just student to
Professor format. I think this would help get close to the other classmates and
learn ideas and thoughts from each other. Probably, group debate would be an
interesting idea to promote discussion.
