Gigi Foster is a U.S. born academic and economist. She is currently a professor of economics at the University of New South Wales. [1]
She regularly appears in the Australian media on the topic of economics, having been a panellist on discussion television show Q&A [2] [3] and host of a radio show on the ABC. [4]
Foster received a Bachelor of Arts (Ethics, Politics, and Economics) from Yale University, and completed a PhD in economics at the University of Maryland. [1]
Foster hosts The Economists on the ABC with Australian economics journalist Peter Martin. [4]
Foster has criticised the COVID Zero-centred approach adopted by Victoria and other jurisdictions within Australia, believing that the costs to the economy outweighed the potential benefits of reducing case numbers. [5] [6] Her employer the University of New South Wales distanced themselves from her comments which were televised during the show Q&A. [7]
Gigi Foster was named Young Economist of The Year for 2019 by the Economics Society of Australia. [8]
Microeconomics is a branch of economics that studies the behavior of individuals and firms in making decisions regarding the allocation of scarce resources and the interactions among these individuals and firms. Microeconomics focuses on the study of individual markets, sectors, or industries as opposed to the economy as a whole, which is studied in macroeconomics.
Economic history is the study of history using methodological tools from economics or with a special attention to economic phenomena. Research is conducted using a combination of historical methods, statistical methods and the application of economic theory to historical situations and institutions. The field can encompass a wide variety of topics, including equality, finance, technology, labour, and business. It emphasizes historicizing the economy itself, analyzing it as a dynamic entity and attempting to provide insights into the way it is structured and conceived.
Robert Emerson Lucas Jr. was an American economist at the University of Chicago. Widely regarded as the central figure in the development of the new classical approach to macroeconomics, he received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1995 "for having developed and applied the hypothesis of rational expectations, and thereby having transformed macroeconomic analysis and deepened our understanding of economic policy". N. Gregory Mankiw characterized him as "the most influential macroeconomist of the last quarter of the 20th century". In 2020, he ranked as the 10th most cited economist in the world.
Behavioral economics is the study of the psychological, cognitive, emotional, cultural and social factors involved in the decisions of individuals or institutions, and how these decisions deviate from those implied by classical economic theory.
Experimental economics is the application of experimental methods to study economic questions. Data collected in experiments are used to estimate effect size, test the validity of economic theories, and illuminate market mechanisms. Economic experiments usually use cash to motivate subjects, in order to mimic real-world incentives. Experiments are used to help understand how and why markets and other exchange systems function as they do. Experimental economics have also expanded to understand institutions and the law.
Heterodox economics or pseudoeconomics refers to attempts at treating the subject of economics that reject the standard tools and methodologies of mainstream economics, which constitute the scientific method as applied to the field of economics. These tools include include:
In the philosophy of economics, a descriptive or positive statement is an assertion about facts of the world, while prescriptive or normative statements express value judgments. The former describe the world as it is, while the latter talk about the world as it should be. The methodological basis for positive/normative distinction is rooted in the fact-value distinction in philosophy.
Media multitasking is the concurrent use of multiple digital media streams. Media multitasking has been associated with depressive symptoms and social anxiety by a study involving 318 participants. A 2018 review found that while the literature is sparse and inconclusive, people who do a heavy amount of media multitasking have worse performance in several cognitive domains. One of the authors commented that while the data does not "unambiguously show that media multitasking causes a change in attention and memory," media multitasking is an inefficient practice that requires "task switching" costs including "limitations in auditory and visual processing".
Thermoeconomics, also referred to as biophysical economics, is a school of heterodox economics that applies the laws of statistical mechanics to economic theory. Thermoeconomics can be thought of as the statistical physics of economic value and is a subfield of econophysics.
Stratified columnar epithelium is a rare type of epithelial tissue composed of column-shaped cells arranged in multiple layers. It is found in the conjunctiva, pharynx, anus, and male urethra. It also occurs in embryo.
Motilin receptor is a G protein-coupled receptor that binds motilin. It was first cloned in 1999 by Merck Laboratories. and scientists have since been searching for compounds to modify its behavior.
The Easterlin paradox is a finding in happiness economics formulated in 1974 by Richard Easterlin, then professor of economics at the University of Pennsylvania, and the first economist to study happiness data. The paradox states that at a point in time happiness varies directly with income both among and within nations, but over time happiness does not trend upward as income continues to grow: while people on higher incomes are typically happier than their lower-income counterparts at a given point in time, higher incomes don't produce greater happiness over time. One explanation is that my happiness depends on a comparison between my income and my perceptions of the average standard of living. If everyone's income increases, my increased income gives a short boost to my happiness, since I do not realize that the average standard of living has gone up. Some time later, I realize that the average standard of living has also gone up, so the happiness boost produced by my increased income disappears. It is the contradiction between the point-of-time and time series findings that is the root of the paradox: while there is a correlation at a fixed point, there is no trend over multiple points. That is, in the short run, everyone perceives increases in income to be correlated with happiness and tries to increase their incomes. However, in the long run, this proves to be an illusion, since everyone's efforts to raise standards of living lead to increasing averages, leaving everyone in the same place in terms of relative income. Various theories have been advanced to explain the paradox, but the paradox itself is solely an empirical generalization. The existence of the paradox has been strongly disputed by other researchers.
The Bedford Handbook is a guide written by Diana Hacker, now in its eleventh edition, that provides basic explanations of proper English grammar, composition, citation, and textual analysis. The guide includes a number of sample texts and illustrations throughout its sections. It also covers the concept of plagiarism.
Demographic economics or population economics is the application of economic analysis to demography, the study of human populations, including size, growth, density, distribution, and vital statistics.
Academic integrity is a moral code or ethical policy of academia. The term was popularized by Rutgers University professor Donald McCabe who is considered to be the "grandfather of academic integrity". Other prominent academic integrity scholars and advocates include Tracey Bretag (Australia), Cath Ellis (Australia), Sarah Elaine Eaton (Canada), Thomas Lancaster (UK), Tomáš Foltýnek, and Tricia Bertram Gallant (US). Academic integrity supports the enactment of educational values through behaviours such as the avoidance of cheating, plagiarism, and contract cheating, as well as the maintenance of academic standards; honesty and rigor in research and academic publishing.
In economics, non-convexity refers to violations of the convexity assumptions of elementary economics. Basic economics textbooks concentrate on consumers with convex preferences and convex budget sets and on producers with convex production sets; for convex models, the predicted economic behavior is well understood. When convexity assumptions are violated, then many of the good properties of competitive markets need not hold: Thus, non-convexity is associated with market failures, where supply and demand differ or where market equilibria can be inefficient. Non-convex economies are studied with nonsmooth analysis, which is a generalization of convex analysis.
Convexity is a geometric property with a variety of applications in economics. Informally, an economic phenomenon is convex when "intermediates are better than extremes". For example, an economic agent with convex preferences prefers combinations of goods over having a lot of any one sort of good; this represents a kind of diminishing marginal utility of having more of the same good.
Chris Brooks is Professor of Finance in the ICMA Centre, Henley Business School at the University of Reading, United Kingdom.
Joyce Penelope Jacobsen is a former President of Hobart and William Smith Colleges. Dr. Jacobsen was elected as the 29th President of Hobart College and the 18th President of William Smith College. Jacobsen is a scholar of economics, an award-winning teacher and an experienced administrator. She began her presidency on July 1, 2019. She is the first woman to serve as president of Hobart and William Smith Colleges.
Tracey Bretag EdD (1958–2020), was an Australian academic and educator, known for her extensive work in higher education, with a particular focus on plagiarism and academic integrity. Her research and advocacy focused on promoting ethical practices in academia and addressing issues related to academic misconduct.