Tjalling Koopmans Econ 490 fall 2019

While I have never really been an agent of multiple principals myself, I do know that my father acts as one due to his job. My father works at IBM, working both to secure deals and to help with both designing and implementing things that client companies want. To this end, he is an agent of both IBM and the client company that he is working with. While I do not know the specifics of what he is instructed to do for the companies, I can only assume that my father’s goal as an IBM agent is to gain a deal that is the most beneficial to IBM while at the same time making sure that the client company is getting the service they desire while not spending enough money and effort to make the deal not worth it. In simpler terms, one side is trying to spend less for a service while the other is trying to get more for performing that service. Attempting to reach a middle ground is the role my father performs. In this case, despite the inherent contradiction between the two objectives, it is simply...

When exploring the origins of a conflict and how it played out, I will use a fictional example based on the lore of the game Warhammer 40,000. This event is called the Horus Heresy and in simplest terms is a war between demigods and their armies who either chose to remain loyal to their father or betray him. Each major individual grew up on a different world and thus had radically different and often conflicting values and morals, leading to rivalries and a general hatred for each other. This was compounded by two major events. The first was when their father, a man known only as the emperor, had one of his son’s and his army burn down another’s greatest achievement and force him to kneel to destroyer, all for worshiping the emperor as a god. The second was the emperor abandoning his children during a crusade he was leading to work on a project he refused to tell anyone about. This paved the way for half of his 20 children to doubt him and rebel. I will now explain these events in mor...

When it comes to punishment, the method executed greatly affects the expected results, intentionally or otherwise. While a punishment may be intended to make a relationship more stable, and therefore more profitable, pushing a person too hard will instead make them less compatible with others. As such, it is important to find a moderate punishment that incentivizes the troublesome individual to reform without being so harsh as to make the problem worse. I will look at some examples both relating to my own life and fictional to determine what sort of punishment would be the most fitting. While a severe punishment may more damaging than helpful, the threat of the punishment might be more useful. While I was working over the summer, one of my coworkers was caught slacking off and was given a warning. If they were caught one more time they would be fired. After that, they became much more productive as they knew that they would be monitored more closely. This punishment has several bene...