Economics marathon

Today was an 8.00-to-18.00 Economics Marathon with Professor Ralf Boscheck on center stage all day. The morning session went with 'Institutional Economics'. This gave a great insight in the theories behind how you decide which functions to outsource and which ones to keep in-house as well as what decisions you should make centrally and which ones that are best done locally.

The afternoon session was on the subject of 'Regulation' in an economic perspective. I will never look at our politicians and legislators the same way again after that session. Now I have an idea of the dilemmas they are battling. The session was vividly illustrated by examples of the consequences of deregulating the US airline industry, UK water and electricity supply as well as the health care sector in general. I can see why it is practically impossible to come to a clear definition on the optimal balance between regulation and free market forces in these markets.

Today was just a warm-up for next week, where we combined have economics for almost four full days.

Thorsten


Economics Professor Ralf Boscheck in a nutshell. He has filled in seven blackboards (two more outside the picture) and continues on the flip-chart. I think it would make him feel empty inside if he ever was to leave a class room with empty space on the blackboards.

It is finally warm enough for an outdoor ping-pong game after lunch. At the first table it is (left to right) Bruno Portnoi [Brazilian], Stefano Giussani [Italian], Shibu James [Indian] and Yury Vasilkov [Russian] that are showing the hidden talents. In the back is Seif Shieshakli [Saudi Arabian/German] and Ilya Syshchikov [Russian].