Topics
The influence of the Austrian School in Economics
If you are a student in Econometrics or Economics, the concept of marginal utility should ring a bell. From your first-year course in microeconomics to the more advanced courses later in your bachelor, the concept plays an important role in understanding microeconomics. The theory is founded on the premise that choices made by consumers are […]
Outsmarting Spotify with complete silence
In March 2014, an American band named Vulfpeck released the album Sleepify. With the money raised by this album they did a Sleepify tour across America with shows that people could attend free of charge. Nothing too special so far, what’s the catch? Well, Sleepify lived up to its name: there isn’t a single sound […]
Are we alone in the universe?
Are we alone in the universe? A question that has occupied and fascinated human mind for generations. But with the enormous size of the universe, we can't possibly be alone right? - Patrick Jans
Why Formula 1 is crucial for our safety
Many of you have probably watched the most recent race in Imola, where Max Verstappen achieved his 11th career win. During the Grand Prix, two drivers crashed into each other at 300 kilometres per hour and caused the race to be red-flagged. Luckily, the drivers could get out of their cars with no scratches. Had […]
Should billionaires exist?
You might have heard it in the news lately, the number of billionaires has never been as high as right now. At the beginning of April, the Forbes’ 35th Annual World’s Billionaires List was announced. The number of people owning more than \$1,000,000,000 has increased to an unprecedented 2,755. Together they are worth \$13.1 trillion, […]
Newcomb’s paradox
Let’s suppose that we have a game with two players. One is a person that will make a decision and the other is a supercomputer that will try and predict that decision beforehand. This computer has been tested many times and the testers have worked out that the computer can predict the decision of the […]
Are central banks the climate rescuers of last resort?
During the 2008 financial crisis, the US housing bubble collapsed since homeowners could not repay their loans, which forced the US government to bail out financial institutions that were “too big to fail” with 21 billion dollars tax money. While we are already in a new financial crisis due to Covid-19, another financial crisis may […]
Why does time seem to speed up when we get older?
With a deep sigh you blow out the candles on the cake. Today is your birthday and the whole family is congratulating you. You should be happy, but something is troubling you. Last year seems to have passed so quickly, even quicker than the year before. When you were younger, you never understood why your […]
The conundrum of perpetual motion
It is no surprise that the 19th century was a time of scientific breakthroughs and wondrous inventions. However, for the people of Philadelphia, this meant that for only one dollar they could admire the most amazing machine in the world: a machine that stayed in motion forever without any external source of energy. The inventor […]
How carbon plates are changing the running scene
On the 6th of may 2017, I woke up early in the morning to watch a special race: the sub-2 hour project announced by Nike. During my breakfast, a very special athlete was cruising at a pace of around 21.1 km/hour on a race track in Monza, Italy. Guided by pacemakers and an electric car […]
Interview with TKP
TKP, have you already heard of them? When you are a student in Groningen, the answer is probably yes. You probably have encountered their famous ‘red tower’ on the ring road numerous times. However, there are also a lot of students who have heard of them but still do not know what it is exactly […]
Podcast de Econometrist: de balans tussen feest en sport
Een primeur! De allereerste podcast in de geschiedenis van de Econometrist. In deze podcast duiken Sjors en Jochem dieper in de rol van sport in het leven van een student, en alle keuzes en uitdagingen die daarbij komen kijken. Tune in en zone out door jezelf onder te dompelen in de wereld van de studentensportverenigingen, […]
Depletion workouts | what are they?
Summer is getting closer, but unfortunately the gyms are still closed due to Dutch measures to fight COVID-19. However, it is a good time to obtain essential information on doing workouts, in fact on doing depletion workouts. But what are these workouts? If you are wondering and you would like to challenge yourself physically as […]
Trading cards – Entertainment or investment?
With trading cards becoming more popular the last year, it seems not only collectors have taken an interest. Some investors and companies are now starting to invest in these trading cards.
Introduction to Economics – Old School Runescape Edition
It is the year 2007. The school bell has rung and you’ve jumped on your bike and are sprinting home as fast as possible. At home you fire up the Windows Vista powered desktop computer, you launch the game client, and “Jungle Island” starts to play. It is time to fish an inventory full of […]
The Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test
In statistics we are often estimating parameters and then, using some hypothesis test, we can find out if we should either reject our null hypothesis or not. Now in these tests we almost always rely on some known distribution of a so-called test statistic. Let us start by looking at an example of such a […]
You might need to change your password and here’s why
Remember those good old times when you could just use an all lowercase letter password of just six characters? You might have to bury deep into your memories, since those times are long gone. For me, the last such password I can remember, was my password for Spele.nl ten years ago. Back then, I could […]
Is OLS a thing of the past?
[latexpage] One of the most popular regression methods an econometrician learns is the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS). It is a simple and elegant way of estimating parameters in linear regression. However, there is another technique to perform linear regression using concepts from machine learning. This concept is called gradient boosting and is also related to […]
Can sports change the world?
In 1994, Nelson Mandela was in his first term as President of South Africa and tried to bring his divided country together. President Mandela knew that South Africa was radically and economically divided by Apartheid. In an attempt to unite his nation, he initiated a unique venture by inviting Franciois Pienaar, the Captain of the […]
The true winners of the Olympic Games
In July 2021 the 32nd Olympic Summer Games will take place. Or at least, that is the plan of the Japanese organizers and the International Olympic Committee. With the COVID-19 pandemic rates rising in Japan and global concerns whether organizing such a large event is responsible, it is not yet clear whether this plan is […]
The Super Bowl is won during the Half-Time Show
It started with marching bands, Micheal Jackson made it big, Diana Ross used a helicopter and Justin Timberlake caused women to be ignored for 7 years during the hiring process. We are of course talking about the Super Bowl Half-Time Show! The 15-minute extravaganza has been part of the sports event since the start and […]
Why do snow crystals have six sides?
It’s cold outside and the last couple of days it has been snowing heavily. Some people hate the snow and others love it, but I think we can all agree that a thick layer of snow gives some extra brightness to the world, especially in these dark winter months. This beautifulness of snow does not […]
The GameStop Market Chaos
You've probably heard of Reddit before. It is a social media platform consisting of a network of communities, called subreddits. Most people tend to use Reddit to post messages and share content with each other. Last week however, members of the subreddit r/wallstreetbets all helped raise the stock of Gamestop, a struggling American videogame retailer, from \$20 to a stunning \$480. This resulted in huge profits and losses, and overall a very volatile stock market. So, how did a group of redditors manage to dominate the stock exchange?
Is a Ph.D. the right option for you?
Commencing on a Ph.D. is a big decision. In a majority of cases, a Ph.D. will consume three to five years of your life. Even though a Ph.D. is a time-consuming journey, many people do not know exactly what a Ph.D. is and what advantages a Ph.D. has to offer. In fact, most first-year students […]
Is big brother really watching you?
In his dystopian novel ‘1984’, George Orwell introduces a society which is controlled by the government. All the news is fabricated and everything is monitored by the so-called “Thought Police”. The book discusses the consequences of an authoritarian government and how the manipulation of facts influences politics. For instance, the main job of the protagonist, […]
Will your family name ever go extinct?
[latexpage] Nowadays, in most countries, everyone has a surname. Some names are very common, like “de Jong” in the Netherlands, or for example “Nguyễn” in Vietnam, where almost 40% of the population has this surname. On the other hand, some surnames are extremely rare. For instance in Thailand, where surnames were largely introduced in 1913 […]
Are jugglers actually math enthusiasts?
Juggling, something we have all tried at least once in our life. For some, it resulted in the great satisfaction of three balls flying in perfect harmony through the air. For others, it was a traumatic experience of balls flying everywhere except for the right place. It is a quite challenging, but rewarding hobby. Some […]
The pitfalls of being intelligent
In economics, one of the first assumptions we are taught is that we are dealing with rational actors. The idea that people make rational and well-considered decisions. But in life, this almost never seems to be the case. When we look around us in the world, we see experts ignoring certain facts, authorities making the […]
The medical test paradox
[latexpage] Testing has been quite a significant subject during this pandemic. Around 30.000 people a day are being tested in the Netherlands alone, so it is quite important that such a test can accurately predict whether someone actually has the disease. However, an accurate test is not always as predictive as you would like. This […]
Christmas with a mathematical touch
At first, you may think that mathematics has nothing to do with Christmas. The only link I could think of was calculating whether you have enough budget to buy that all those present for your family. However, mathematicians will always think of a way to integrate mathematics and thus, also for Christmas. One of the […]