Amy Finkelstein ECON 490 Blog

When I was applying to colleges as a senior in High School, I applied with the intent to major in engineering. I was accepted into the engineering programs at nine of the ten schools that I applied to, the one school that had not accepted my application was my top school, the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. I was extremely disappointed when I found out, however, the University of Illinois had admitted me into the Division of General studies program. I was still able to attend my dream school however I needed to go through the application process once I completed all the prerequisites to transfer into the school of engineering after I completed my freshman year. This meant I needed to go through another year of applications before I could be in the major. I decided that going to my dream school and having to sacrifice another year without being in a major was something I was willing to do. I committed to the University of Illinois and began my college career. When I met...

ECON 490 Blog Post 9/22 Opportunism is an interesting topic especially when it is related to economics. Opportunities are available for people to take advantage of more often than not. It is a personal character that guides the decision-making process of being a good citizen or not. There are many stories I can think of about people not maintaining good character and not being a good citizen. I think one of the most notorious cases of opportunism is the Bernie Madoff investment scandal. He took advantage of thousands of people including high-profile celebrity clients to average Americans. He created a $50-$65 billion dollar loss for investors and stole about $20 million for himself. I believe that acting opportunistically always relates to the theory of "karma" or "what goes around comes around." Bernie Madoff may have been very rich at one point in his life, however, he was caught by the authorities and now only makes $40 a month in his 150-year prison senten...

After arriving at the University of Illinois as a freshman, I decided that I wanted to become involved with the Greek Community on campus. I had heard many positive things by the older kids I knew that had attended the University. I went through the formal sorority recruitment process and found a chapter that was the best fit for me. During this recruitment process, I was completely unaware that I was joining an organization that would greatly impact and enhance my collegiate experience as a whole. I immediately started getting involved in the different aspects of the chapter. I was a part of philanthropic, recruitment, social, operations, and other committees during my first year involved in Greek life. As a freshman, everything was brand new to me and I just decided to do the duties I was assigned no questions asked. As time passed, my friends and I started to realize that there were some flaws within the organization we were involved in. We found certain areas of the chapter ...

Hello! Welcome to my blog for ECON 490! Amy Finkelstein is a professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  Amy Finkelstein is  very busy since she is the co-Director of the Public Economics Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a member of the Institute of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Fellow of the Econometric Society, and the  co-Scientific Director of J-PAL North America .   I did not know of Amy Finkelstein prior to the start of this class. Her work is important regarding public finance and health economics.