“The Gold Rush Among the Stars: Trillionaires and Asteroid Mining” by Vinayak Kalra
“Bound by Irrationality: Pride & Prejudice” by Anagha Gopinath
“The $120K Banana: Defining Value in the Art World” by Alizeh Razvi
“When Technology Expires” by Isha Trivedi
IKEA has been known for its iconic meatballs, affordable furniture, and wordless instruction manuals. Behind all of this is a unique business model that goes beyond economic theory, challenging economic norms. Research shows IKEA goes against the pivotal and essential model of supply and demand to provide affordable prices. All of this lies behind Swedish philosophy of socialism and humanism, which leads to removing high-cost products and providing customers the best price possible.
Read MoreEmotions play a huge role in risk perception and decision-making. The article explores vaccine hesitancy, its present and history, along with its economic implications through the lens of behavioural economics. Cognitive biases such as the affect heuristic and the confirmation bias could explain the anti-vaccine sentiment during the initial phases of the pandemic as well as other irrational decisions that one might make at the mercy of the mind.
Read MoreNFTs, or Non-Fungible Tokens, have made headlines around the world with artists, celebrities, and everyday people making millions of dollars selling seemingly unassuming digital media.
Read MoreThe world of contemporary art is mysterious and at times economically inexplicable. As a result, public perception towards the art world is often plagued with assumptions of contemporary art being over-priced and even over-valued in itself. This begs the question, is this really so far from the truth?
Read MoreWhat we are witnessing with COVID-19 is the loss of some of the emergent properties of human beings interacting and gathering - the breakdown of systems that keep us safe, warm, fed, and, just as importantly, well socialized.
Read MoreThe movie theatre industry is responsible for entertaining mass audiences; however due to its outdated method of delivery in a digital age dominated by accessibility and convenience, it has experienced a drastic drop in consumer demand. The film industry is now facing an unprecedented risk in producing and investing in theatrically distributed movies. These financial risks have reshaped the content produced for mass audiences away from original storylines and towards clichéd and overdone blockbusters, while streaming services have risen as the pinnacle for original, accessible, and influential entertainment. Therefore, the shift out of the stagnant movie theatre industry and into the at-home entertainment industry is signalling a new era of movie entertainment in the digital age along with the decline of a once dominant industry.
Read MoreRemember the “I’m Just a Bill” song from Schoolhouse Rock? In it, a singing bill describes the path it must take to become a law in the United States, from surviving committee to getting a majority of support in both the House of Representatives and the Senate and, finally, requiring the signature of the president. The nation’s founding fathers famously sought to create a cautious process through which only the most worthy of ideas could become law because they wished to constrain overzealous legislators. But this cautious impulse is not just constrained to the United States. From houses of parliament to company boards the world over, a proposal must have the support of a majority of stakeholders to have a prayer of success. If a constituency’s issues cannot gain majority support, they are labelled “the opposition” and their issues remain unsolved. Is there an alternative to the majoritarian legislative process?
Read MoreInstagram is a fundamental part of the 21st century and has single-handedly reshaped the way we interact with each other. Its online prevalence is astounding; as of 2018, 1 billion users were reported to use Instagram monthly to share their photos and short videos. Along with Instagram’s swift rise in popularity, it has also faced an exponential rise in wealth as it was estimated to be valued at 100 billion dollars in 2018 from its initial net worth of 1 billion dollars in 2012. In short, Instagram’s cult-like popularity makes it a goldmine for advertisers and businesses looking to enhance their online engagement with the consumer market. They do this with the help of the revolutionary walking advertisement: the influencer. The recent developments in online advertising beg the question, is Instagram the new advertising frontier or is it simply a transient phase in digital marketing?
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