Microeconomics! Topic for essay?

One response to “Microeconomics! Topic for essay?”

1. 
   Elbie

   February 10, 2011 at 10:01 pm | Permalink

   Here are some topics that might be helpful:

   –How to develop appropriate bird-aircraft strike reduction programs to combat bird and other wildlife strikes to aircraft annually which cause over $600 million in damage to U.S. civil and military aviation…

   –How to determine the effects of acts of technological innovation on specific animal species…

   –Periodic droughts debilitate and destabilize poor societies, and contribute to land degradation by reducing vegetative cover and water supplies, triggering a desperate exploitation of the remaining resources in order to survive.

   Goods and services from natural ecosystems that are crucial for the livelihoods of the rural poor include wild foods, timber, fuel, fiber, medicines, pollination services to crops, soil fertility regeneration, water storage and supply (drought and flood control), carbon storage, air and water purification, climate moderation, tourism potential, and cultural values, among others. Drought disrupts the natural ecosystems, and therefore, has disastrous affects.

   –Comparative Cultural Competitive Strengths:
   http://www.orientpacific.com/paper1.htm

   To succeed internationally, we need to understand the cultures of the world; and we have all the cultures of the world represented right here – a tremendous competitive advantage. »
   ? Ernest Thompson, Proctor and Gamble
   Nowadays, globalisation, which is a phenomenon mainly generated by the application of new technologies such as Information Systems and Internet, represents a “survival” challenge for international firms. Changes of consumption, modernity and the integration of minorities tend to suggest that an adaptation of products and services is necessary and even obliged. (C.f. Maslow Pyramid, where a need creates a need more important and more complicated to realize)This implies the application of modern principles of free trade in a global market. That is why international companies need to reach the necessary competitiveness to obtain positive results in order to elaborate contents for global satisfaction. It is undoubtedly an obligation to reach the results expected.
   http://en.oboulo.com/cultural+diversity

   Most of companies employ people from different culture and want to manage them in order to use in the best way as possible this diversity. The management of this kind of workers must be adapted. To become a real international competitive advantage, cultural diversity in the company has to be seriously managed and thought. It can lead to a great success but also causes the failure of a company unable to manage it. The knowledge of the cultural diversity do that firms obtain a real international competitive advantage. Firms must develop a good understanding of the culture of others countries if they want to be efficient on the market. For instance Americans could lose Japanese clients if they fail to understand that Japanese use a period politeness to signal their intentions, the Europeans could be offended by the Americans with their informality such as standing with their hands in their pockets. To avoid such problems the necessary preparations is to become aware on cultural and language differences.
   http://www.orientpacific.com/paper1.htm
   http://en.oboulo.com/cultural+diversity

   Anyway, here are some examples of economics projects posted by a professor; to view the webpage, use the link below…I hope this is what you are looking for – Good Luck:

   Real-World Economic Investigative Projects from Previous Years:

   Here are some examples of successful and interesting real-world investigative projects that students have turned in in previous years.
   When I grade these projects, I look for two things.
   1) Has the author observed and carefully described interesting aspects of the economic world?
   2) Has the author attempted to analyze and interpret these observations using economic tools that we have studied?

   –Investigation of Central Campus Recreation Building
   A team of students did a survey at Michigan’s Central Campus Recreation Building to try to learn the distribution of people’s willingness-to-pay for using the CCRB. For seven consecutive days they went to the CCRB and randomly surveyed ten students asking them the amount they would be willing to pay. They also interviewed the management to find out daily attendance and daily costs of operations. From their survey, they estimated the proportion of users who would be willing to pay $25, $50, and $100 per semester for using the facility. They scaled up by the total number of users to estimate a demand curve for the facility for each day of the week.

   –The Cost of Roses
   This student chose to study the seasonal demand and supply for roses. She interviewed florists for her data. She found that the demand for roses is fairly constant over the year, except for Valentine’s Day, when it is much larger. She found that the price of roses is dramatically higher on Valentine’s Day than the rest of the year. In particular, the wholesale price is about three times the usual price. Despite the higher prices, more roses are sold on Valentine’s Day than on other days. The student drew demand and supply curves to explain what happened.

   –Pricing of Blue Jeans
   The authors checked the prices of blue jeans of a given brand name in several different stores in the Ann Arbor area. They found both the most expensive and the cheapest place to buy blue jeans. The prices were very different, though the cheapest ones available were “last year’s model”. The authors made efforts to explain the price differences that were observed.

   –Pricing and Coupon Promotions by Ann Arbor pizza shops
   The authors priced pizzas at a large number of Ann Arbor stores and discussed their marketing strategies with managers. They suggest that the Ann Arbor market segments between students and families and that coupon promotions are primarily focussed on student demanders. They offer an explanation for this difference based on the theory of price discrimination.

   –The Commodity Futures Industry and the Chicago Board of Trade
   This student had been a summer intern at the Chicago Board of Trade. He wrote a discription of commodity futures markets and an account of trading rules in the Chicago Board of Trade, and compared the procedures at the Chicago Board of Trade with those in our experimental markets in Econ 109.

   –Low-wage Jobs in the Ann Arbor Area
   In the last two years, at least four groups have made such studies. One group found the wages paid by bookstores and convenience stores for cashiers and stockpersons, the wages paid by restaurants to servers, cooks, and buspersons, and the wages paid by work-study jobs at the University of Michigan. Another group found the wages paid by fast-food stores and pizza shops. Another group found the wages paid in about 50 low-wage jobs in and around the University of Michigan. (A very impressive effort) This paper makes a nice effort to try to explain existing differences between the rates of pay for these low-wage jobs.

   –Seasonal Pricing, Occupancy Rate and Cost Structure of some Michigan Motels
   One group interviewed several motel-owners to determine their pricing, occupancy rate over the seasons and also inquired about their cost structure.

   –Pricing of Ski Resorts–Lift Tickets and Housing
   Some groups have investigated the pricing on weekdays, weekends, and holidays at a large number of resorts in the Rocky Mountains, the Midwest, and the East. They attempt to explain the differences that they observe by means of demand and supply theory.
   http://www.econ.ucsb.edu/~tedb/eep/StudP…