A slam-dunk on supply and demand.
Economists may struggle to forecast growth and inflation precisely, but they can help you understand why Michael Jordan dominated the court and give you a great excuse to spend time building your fantasy teams. In his new book, An Economist Goes to the Game: How to Throw Away $580 Million and Other Surprising Insights from the Economics of Sports, professor of economics Paul Oyer explores the lighter side of supply and demand by using academic principles to explain everything from why fans should love ticket scalpers (they reallocate resources and create competition in the market) to the reason South Korean women became dominant in golf whereas the men did not (several reasons, including a lack of opportunities for women in the labor market). “Economics is called the dismal science, and I like to think it’s more fun than that,” he said in an interview with the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
Heated discussions.
Both the U.S. Senate and the House have passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which is poised to set aside $369 billion for clean energy infrastructure, the largest such investment in U.S. history. The L.A. Times consulted experts on what comes next, including some difficult conversations—like about which land to use for renewable energy projects. Among the experts is Dan Reicher, JD ’83, a senior research scholar at Stanford’s Woods Institute for Environment, who says he has convened more than 20 groups (including representatives from the solar industry, the agriculture industry, and Native American tribes) to work through some of those issues together and help companies make smarter decisions about where to build their projects. This isn’t Reicher’s first trip to the Awkward Moments Rodeo. He talked with Stanford magazine last spring about spearheading the Uncommon Dialogue on hydropower, which brought together environmentalists and their (ostensible) industry adversaries to figure out how to make dams better support both power production and ecosystems.
Deep feelings.
Photo: Frederic Osada/DRASSM/Stanford
Robots grow up so fast. It seems like just yesterday that little OceanOneK was taking shallow dips in Stanford’s Avery Recreation Pool. But this summer, the humanoid robot dived 500 meters deep in the Mediterranean, guided by researchers and archaeologists, to the sunken Italian steamship Le Francesco Crispi. The robot’s haptic feedback system and stereoscopic vision produced realistic sensations, allowing roboticists to experience the dive as if they were the ones down below. “It has been an incredible journey,” said Oussama Khatib, professor of computer science and director of the Stanford Robotics Lab.
Getting the story strait.
After House speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan on August 2, follow-up Chinese military drills in the waters and airspace around Taiwan demonstrated the skill of armed forces that now rival the United States’ in both quality and quantity. That’s a critical change, according to Oriana Skylar Mastro, a center fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. She maintains that with the largest navy in the world, there is no longer any question that China is rehearsing an invasion of Taiwan. Pelosi’s visit gave the Chinese an excuse to conduct realistic drills that both help them hone their capabilities and make it “harder to decipher when they are preparing for the real thing,” Mastro wrote in the Economist.
But wait, there’s more.
Earthquakes and wildfires and megastorms?! Oh my. Research co-led by climate scientist Daniel Swain, PhD ’16, shows that Californians can expect a multiweek megastorm any winter now. It would dump an average of some 16 inches of precipitation (psst, locals: that’s when water comes from the sky) across the state and strain Cali’s flood preparations.
Rachel Maddow, ’94, talks with Vanity Fair about her new production company, the seven herniated discs she has after more than a decade in prime time, and more.
Former Stanford chess club president and women’s chess master Alexandra Botez, ’17, has been making moves as a chess streamer, playing live games online for more than a million fans. With an income equal to many of the world’s top-ranked players’, she has, in a way, beaten them at their own game.
Not all heroes wear capes. In fact, some are effectively naked, like the goats grazing down vegetation on unpopulated swathes of Stanford’s 8,180-acre campus. Who knew a wildfire management plan could be so adorable?
The best way to boost employee morale might be found outside the office, according to Graduate School of Business professors Jeffrey Pfeffer, PhD ’72, and Sara Singer, MBA ’93. Their research suggests that, perhaps more than Hawaiian Shirt Day, collective volunteering helps employees both bond with their coworkers and identify with their employers.
Is it harder to design interplanetary rover parts for NASA or win a national mustache competition? Ask Alfred Nash, ’86—he’s done both.
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