Mathematical Reasoning of Vocational High School Students on Mathematical Tasks in the Law of Demand Context

This study aims to describe the mathematical reasoning abilities of vocational high school students in the business and management expertise in solving mathematical tasks in the law of demand context. This research uses the descriptive qualitative method. The participants consisted of six students categorized into three groups: high, medium, and low mathematical abilities. Participants from one of the vocational schools in Ciamis, Indonesia. Mathematical tasks to explore students' mathematical reasoning abilities in the law of demand context. The law of demand is a concept in business economics subjects. The task situation expanded as an alternative to solving more mathematical tasks—data from the results of student answers and interviews. Data analysis refers to the characteristics of mathematical reasoning, which consists of imitative and creative reasoning. The stages of data analysis are reduction, presentation, interpretation, inference, and verification. The results of data analysis show that all students tend to do imitative reasoning on each given task. Students tend to remember the law of demand formulas and perform mathematical procedures that they remember. Students often perform mathematical procedures that are not by the nature of mathematics so that the resulting solution is wrong. The law of demand questions designed to explore creative reasoning abilities has not been able to bring students to the flow of creative mathematical reasoning.

Selshi Effect: A New age conspicuous Exceptions to the Theory of Law of Demand

Hypothesis: As we all come across the word “Demand” (a simple word but with multitude usage in practice), the foundational concept to understand what the economics is? And how it functions? With due importance of it, one can easily understand the behavior of commodities’ against its prices (termed as Law of Demand) subject to its assumptions. There are certain circumstances where this law loses its validity due to one or the other reasons Viz.., Veblen’s effect, Giffen paradox 1 etc.., In continuation to these exceptions this article is an attempt to check whether the state of the economy (especially recession) acts as an exceptional factor in determining the goods’/commodities’ demand or not, by considering different sectors for different time periods 2. The outputs were surprising because some sectors/businesses were benefitted due to this pandemic led recession and some faced challenge for its survival and revival. However the article is based on secondary data 3 obtained from their competing agency/authority in which the credibility and credit follows them.

On the Observability Requirement in Economics as an Axiomatic Science

This paper points out as the only social science that is axiomatic, economics has the power of predicting beyond interpreting. It then explains that in hypothesis testing, the law of demand is the only indispensable axiom in economics, and that quantity demanded is the only non-observable variable that must be retained. After reviewing his disagreements with his peers and colleagues, and his success in predicting the transformation of China, the author argues that the profession has gone astray with the surge in the use of non-observables.

A Reply to a Replication of “Weathering Corruption” ( Journal of Law and Economics, 2008): Different Data Produce Different Results

Cordis and Milyo replicate our study, which found a positive relationship between FEMA-provided disaster relief and public corruption in the US states. Our study used the corruption data that virtually every study of American corruption uses: PIN data. Using the same data, Cordis and Milyo find the same result. And using different corruption data from TRAC, they find a different result: no relationship between FEMA-provided disaster relief and public corruption. Unsurprisingly, different data produce different results. The meaning of that difference, however, is unclear, especially since the latter result, which implies that public actors do not respond rationally to incentives when making decisions regarding corrupt activities, contradicts the law of demand.

Gender dynamics in Consumer preferences and willingness to pay for edible mushrooms in Ghana

This study uses choice experiment to investigate men and women consumers’ preferences and willingness to pay for edible mushrooms in Ghana. We used a mixed logit model to examine preference heterogeneity. The econometric modelling revealed that men consumers have a negative utility for oyster mushrooms compared to straw mushrooms. They also have preference for cheap and locally cultivated mushrooms compared to expensive and imported mushrooms. However, women consumers have preferences for the shiitake mushroom variety compared to the straw mushroom variety. They also prefer cheap mushrooms irrespective of their location and such mushrooms must be frozen and not fresh. The findings highlight variation between men and women in preferences for mushroom variety, however, both have preferences for low prices, suggesting that both genders are economically rational and obey the law of demand. JEL codes: B21, D12

Income and Substitution Effects: A Rejoinder to Professor Joseph Salerno

Professor Joseph Salerno (2019) has commented on my recent reconstruction of the income effect from a causal-realist perspective (Israel, 2018b). In this rejoinder, I clarify my position and show that the main points of criticism in Salerno’s response are unfounded. In particular, I show that my argument does not involve a claim of greater “realism of assumptions” and it by no means contradicts the law of demand. Moreover, I work out in more detail the similarities and differences of my approach to the standard neoclassical decomposition of income and substitution effects. I show that my approach is closer to the Slutsky decomposition as opposed to the Hicks decomposition.

Demand and Supply in the Cocaine Market: An Empirical Study

This research analyzes the cocaine market from an economic perspective. The consumption of the coca leaf is ancient, and cocaine has been consumed for over 100 years. Longitudinal data from producing countries is taken to estimate cocaine cost structure, and longitudinal data from regions around the world is taken to estimate demand curve. Data is annual and comes from United Nation Office on Drugs and Crime reports. A microeconomic model under imperfect competition is calibrated to estimate volumes and prices of cocaine under illegal market and legal market. Results show that cocaine production has internal economies of scale, and the demand curve satisfies law of demand. Moreover, the world demand for this narcotic segmented by regions is elastic and normal good as income increases. From this economic picture, it is necessary to regulate this market efficiently through price within a context of legality in production and consumption.