Managing income risks

    When I was 19, I opted to go to UIUC for far reaching study. I chose to study abroad because I would like to go back to China for working and the oversea degree could make me more competiitve. I chose Economics and Psychology as my majors because I determined to become a personal financial analyst in the future. Economics allowed me to understand the highly competitive financial market and Psychology incented me to interact with clients much better.
    In addition to academic backgrounds obtained from school, I also attempted to build up my real-world experiences through internships. For instance, I worked as a personal financial analyst assistant in Citibank in summer 2012. I had better understanding about the job through this experience although I gave up the opportunity to stay with my family.
    I am a senior now so I need to plan for my future after graduation. Instead of throwing myself directly into the society, I decide to continue pursing my master degree. I plan to go to the U.K. for further study in Economics. Therefore, I spent most of the summer on preparing for GRE and school researches. School I am currently applying are the University of Cambridge, LSE and UCL. I believe that I can be more prepared and competitive after one year studying in one of these universities.
    I hope my past experiences and my future decisions will make me a qualified personal financial analyst in the future.
    I have a sister who was three years older than me. I went to the U.S. to study when she was 16. She just finished her college degree in Kenyon College in Political Science. I used to ask her if she would like to continue studying or going to work directly and she told me that she preferred to continue researching. Now, she is pursing her Ph.D degree Georgetown University. She told me that she would not want to work for money but want to pursue her own dream. She might become a professor in the future in political science. Her decision incented me to continue pursuing my study in Economics as well.
    Although it is hard for me to predict my future path accurately now, I believe that I can make every current step solid in order to minimize future uncertainties or risks.

Example of Opportunism

    My friend used to work in a Japanese restaurant. The boss asked her to clean tables for three times after costumers had the meals. Actually, the boss or other people would not know whether she actually cleaned tables for only one time or for three times. However, she insisted on following the instruction of the boss and cleaning three times for each table. I had asked her the reason why she did not deceive the boss and be more relaxed during working; she told me that she just felt like she should not deceive others.
    In my opinion, she has several reasons to be a "good" employer. First and the most important, she is always kind and honest to others. Her personality determines that she might not take advantage of others even they might not know. The other reason is that although the boss or supervisor might not know how many times she clean tables for each time, they still can tell her working habits through details. If the boss caught her just once when she failed to clean table for three times or costumers complained about tables, she would be faired. She did not want to ruin her reputation for her laziness. In addition, as a Chinese, she found it was hard to find a part-time job in the U.S., she appreciated the opportunity and felt grateful for the boss. She did not want to let him down. Also, she did not want to ruin opportunities for other Chinese students in their job hunting. If she was caught, it is very likely that employers would not hire Chinese students any more.
    If I summarize all of these reasons above, I will say that they are not the same. Both her innate characteristics and her willingness to keep high reputation force her not to be an opportunist. What is more important is that, it is hard for her to ensure that her supervisors will never find out the truth; therefore, she does not want to take the risk. However, if there is no possibility for others to catch her behaviors, maybe she will take the opportunism. Therefore, these explanations are different and are subject to different circumstances.

My Own Experiences with Organizations and Transaction Costs

    I have worked in education institution this summer. It is a relatively small firm with onlt 16 employers. The structure is simple in this company. The boss is responsible for the whole company's development; there are only three departments, one is for teaching, one is for general managements, and one is for advertisement. Leader of the teaching group decides schedules and courses for other teachers. Managers do daily affairs, making sure the company is functioning well. If the boss has any instructions or comments, he can either find the leader of the department or individual employer directly. Although the company is small, it is very efficient in functioning and the transaction costs are relatively low within the company.
    In university, people always contact with others through emails. This can be viewed as an efficient and cheap way to communicate; however, this method might not be the most optimal one. People might not check emails in time, so if there are emergencies, students cannot respond to these emails immediately. Also, if network is not going well, students are very likely to miss important notifications. When these come true, transaction costs of communicating through emails become much higer.Therefore, school attempt to have other ways to decrease transactions costs. For instance, police department will send us texts through telephones if there are emergencies. If useful methods are combined, the efficiency can be much higher.

Donald Patinkin

    Donald Patinkin (January, 1922-- August, 1995) was an Israeli Economist. He was born in Chicago and received his Ph.D. degree in the University of Chicago. He also used to be an associate professor in the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 1940 to 1949. When Israel was independent in 1949, he successfully immigrated to Israel. He was praised as the "Father of Israeli Economics" for his contributions to the Hebrew University and the Israeli Economics as a whole.
    I want to concentrate on Behavioral Economics in the future, so I have not heard about him or his theories before this course. Donald Patinkin was famous for his book, "Money, Interest and Prices", which he focused on neoclassical macroeconomic models. He majorly believed in John Maynard Keynes' ideas but expanded them more with other monetary theories. Don Patinkin was also expert in disequilibrium economics, theories of unemployment and general monetary economics.
    Based on Don Patinkin's major research fields in Macroeconomics, I do not believe that he will be a major topic in our class. However, it is exciting to explore more about an outstanding economist, whose name is my alias for this class.

Resources:
Inventory of the Don Patinkin Papers, 1870-1995, Retrieved from http://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/findingaids/patinkin/ , Sept 4th, 2013
'Father of Israeli Economics' Don Patinkin, Retrieved from http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1995-08-08/news/9508080080_1_economics-john-maynard-keynes-honorary-doctorate, Sept 4th, 2013
Don Patinkin's Contribution to Monetary Theory, Retrieved from http://www.boi.org.il/deptdata/mehkar/iser/07/iser_1.pdf, Sept 4th, 2013