The economic discipline has a long tradition on micro- and macroeconomics which aid the policy debates regarding contemporary issues. These days, besides governments having to deal with rising inflation, increasing wealth inequality or high levels of unemployment, the...
When somebody from the West travels to Southeast Asia, he cannot help but notice how very low the cost of living is relative to the West. How do we compare prices across countries? The Big Mac index gives us an approximation. Purchasing power parity Purchasing power...
The Great Recession after the financial crisis gave rise to a lot of criticism of contemporary macroeconomic models. The standard modeling assumptions were severely challenged by scholars and policy makers, as they could not account for frictions in the financial...
Looking to catch a movie this month? Chances are that the movie might disappoint you. In fact, apparently most movies which are considered bad tend to be released in January and February. To find out when bad movies come out, it is important to look when movies that...
Have you ever wondered whether there is a winning strategy when playing Deal Or No Deal? The game show might seem like a game of chance, as you choose a suitcase at random and are betting against a banker. However, the opposite is true: you can play according to a...
A couple of weeks ago, Dutch students were hit with an extremely unpleasant surprise: not only did the current generation of students miss out on the “basisbeurs”, but they will also have to pay interest on their student loans! Luckily, there is a little loophole...
I have always had a weakness for history lessons. Although very different from the standard optimal control problems and differential equations I am solving in my studies, I find that the lessons we can learn from great previous minds are both insightful and...
We are living in economically tumultuous times, with high inflation, rapid interest rate rises, and an energy and climate crisis interfering with the economy. Many economic institutions talk of the imminence of a global recession. This fact gives rise to the question:...
London, New York, Paris, Toronto, Manchester: all cities where poverty tends to gather in the east. For each of these cities, one could think of explanations for this on an individual basis. In London for example, the river Thames flowed eastwards. Since in the past...
For some reason I always have a hard time making inter-temporal decisions. Should I drink a few more beers tonight, taking into account that I have a lecture at 9 am tomorrow? Should I buy that new piece of clothing or save to accumulate some (possibly negative)...
Tornado Cash is a tool used on the blockchain. Specifically on the Ethereum blockchain and is known as a crypto mixer. Recently Tornado Cash has been in the news because it has been added to the Specially Designated National & Blocked Persons List (SDN). This...
I recently noticed that in the last few months, my favorite pack of oatmeal went up in price by 40%, from 50 cents to a whopping 70. Not only that, but the beers at the ‘Negende Cirkel’ have probably increased as well (I have to check it when I am sober, though)....
Environmental economics is a study at the intersection of both ecological and economic processes. After all, one of the reasons the earth is warming is because of the continuing growth of our economy and our reliance on fossil fuels. Although numerous efforts have...
The world of online shopping is growing extremely quickly. As a consequence, the importance of targeting is also really important and, therefore, companies are making great use of the enormous availability of data. The implementation of cookies on almost every website...
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