Equilibrium

Valery Vayserberg | Spring 2025   One of the hottest topics on the minds of Americans is the budget deficit of the United States. In 2024, the deficit was a whopping $1.83 trillion, bringing the nation’s debt to nearly $36.5 trillion. There has been a renewed energy of the current administration to reduce government spending …

Brad Huseby | Spring 2025   Every four years, the world comes together to watch the Summer Olympics. While these games are a spectacle with flashy new stadiums, newly designed medals, and a captivating opening ceremony, the profitability of the games is not always discussed. These summer games are anything but cheap to host. Hosting …

William Spahn | Spring 2025   What actually is a tariff? Millions of Americans asked themselves that same question in the runup to the 2024 Presidential election. In recent years, there has been much debate about U.S. trade policy and tariff policy in particular. According to Google Search trends, the topic “Tariff” surged by a …

Brewster Hutchinson | Spring 2025   J-1 visas are temporary, nonimmigrant visas granted to international research scholars, students, professors, and laborers with the goal of promoting cultural exchange while simultaneously stimulating the American economy through providing short-term labor and transfers of knowledge. According to the US Department of State (2023), around 300,000 participants come stateside …

Jonathan Minnis | Spring 2025   Few subjects have been given as much attention as the topic of Climate Change, in both scientific and colloquial discourse. Increasingly, climate change has become a definitive topic of the business world, as waves of climate regulatory policy and capitalist pushbacks have slowly but surely changed industrial practices, consumer …

Urmika Banerjee | Spring 2025 Economic development and global carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions have long been closely related, with urbanization and industrialization fueling increases in energy use and emissions. The energy sector’s CO₂ emissions in 2022 hit a record high of 37 billion tonnes (Gt), a 1% increase above pre-pandemic levels (International Energy Agency, 2023). …

Justin Plank | Spring 2025   Every year, the United States spends an estimated $173 billion treating obesity-related diseases like diabetes and heart disease, more than the annual budgets of 42 U.S. states combined. Amid this crisis, GLP-1 receptor agonists have emerged as a potential game-changer, offering not only weight loss but also the possibility …

Aaron Mathew, Editor-in-Chief | Spring 2025   Overview: Dr. Katy Milkman is the James G. Dinan Professor at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and the co-director of the Behavioral Change for Good Initiative alongside Dr. Angela Duckworth. Her research interests span behavioral economics, psychology, and research methodology, which she explores in her NYT …

Shloka Mohanty | Spring 2025   Engel curves illustrate how the consumption of goods changes as income increases. A classic example from ECON 301 is instant ramen noodles: as income rises, the consumption of this staple typically declines, classifying it as an inferior good. However, this relationship can vary by country.   In India, instant …