William Baumol Econ 490 fall 2017

Monday through Friday, I'd get dropped off to school by my mom. One fine morning, while pulling into the drop off lane, a cop approached the window and peered down. I was in the front seat. I wasn't buckled. The cop, clearly seeing this, directly asked me whether or not I was buckled before he approached.  Tell the truth or avoid a ticket? Lie or get fined? The cop had no way of knowing the truth. The "law" and parents are probably the two biggest figures of authority in a child's life, and this situation seemed to pit the two against each other.  Had I been in the back seat and looked in the rear view mirror, the glare I'd have seen looking back at me surely would have affected my response. Nevertheless, I was in the front, with my full attention on the cop.  When you're jay walking, speeding or not wearing your seat belt, and then you see a cop, your heart jumps and you quickly correct yourself, hoping you don't get caught. If you don't it

Over the summer I worked on the sales team of a software company. There were two other teams within the organization. These were the product development and the product support teams. The objective of the sales team was to set a demo, and then from there the product specialists would perform the demo. Following the demo, if someone was interested in becoming a client, the process of creating a proposal would be worked on by the sales rep and whoever performed the demo. When the proposal was written, it would then be passed on to the owners of the company to be approved or disapproved. If it was approved and the client accepted, the product development team would handle any modifications to the platform that the client might have asked for. Three teams worked together as a larger team in order to complete the sales process. In terms of the decision making process, it resembled a one boss arrangement because the owners had the most through understanding of the companies health and status

Over the three years that I've spent working in tech support, changes occurred that have affected my responsibilities and work environment, as well as the expectations in my performance. When I first started out, my responsibilities simply consisted of troubleshooting equipment issues. It would mainly be done over the phone, but if the issue was urgent, I'd go out into the field to try to resolve it. When resolving issues over the phone, there was a procedure that everyone had to follow. First, you'd refer to a database that was managed by the organization. If the solution couldn't be found there, you'd ask a team lead, and then if they didn't know the answer, a manager would be asked. If I had to go out in the field and couldn't fix it, I'd radio a technician and then they would handle the issue. There were night shifts too. During these shifts, a group of people would go out checking the equipment. This was to stay on top of any issues before they

William Baumol was born on February 26, 1922 in New York City to immigrant parents, Solomon and LIllian Baumol.  Instilled with a deep sense of social responsibility from his upbringing, he decided to study economics as an undergrad. After graduating, he joined the military and worked within the Agriculture Department. When he returned, Baumol continued his studies and went on to pursue a PhD in Philosophy from the London School of Economics .  [1]   Professionally, Baumol headed many organizations. Some of which include the American Economic Association and the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists. He was a professor at Princeton University, where he remained up until his death. Having authored 40 books and published over 500 articles, he was a prolific writer and contributed to development across many fields of economics. His areas of research included  entrepreneurship and innovation, industrial organization, antitrust economics and regulation, and economics of th

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