Economically Speaking with Atanu Dey

Why are some politicians corrupt? Is it a natural outcome of the system that encourages people to make money through public elected office? Why would someone with high morals, who will never accept a bribe or make money otherwise, never succeed?

We revisit some concepts and strengthen our foundation here. What do we mean when we say that one nation has technology and another doesn’t? What is the basic necessity to be able to use and process technology before it can benefit a society?

From a purely academic standpoint, how does having minimum wage affect the economy? Is rent control good for everyone? What are the potential downsides of a price floor or ceiling?

Mr. Katju recently mentioned that we can put more people to work by reducing the price of goods, so that more people will be employed to make more stuff. What is wrong with this logic? How does an entrepreneur decide whether to enter a market as a producer?

How do you put a price on a service? For informational services, there are providers, users and customers. Why do some companies give out free t-shirts? Are all entrepreneurs eventually driving towards a monopoly?

If you have just come up with a great new product, how would you determine the right price for it? What difference does it make, whether your product is some physical good that needs to be manufactured, or software that you can simply make more copies of?

We answer a question from one of our listeners: if a company based in the USA creates software through employees in India, do we add to the GDP of the USA or India? Also, doesn’t anyone know entirely how to make bread from scratch?

Two suppliers compete against each other to provide the best value. But the supplier and the consumer cooperate with each other. When can too much competition shut down a business?

What effect do entrepreneurs have on a market? How does an economy depend on entrepreneurs? What drives the competition among them?