Senior Project Advisor

Roelofs, Matthew

Document Type

Project

Publication Date

Spring 2013

Keywords

Online video games, Video game economies

Abstract

Time and time again, economics as a discipline has been criticized, particularly heavily during times of economic fluctuations and hardship. The public sometimes expects economists to be able to predict the ebbs and flows of the economy, and to perfectly model human behavior. Even if the field had perfect equations to model human behavior, and there is significant debate within the field if such a thing is even possible, economists must often rely upon flawed data. In order to create the sort of equations that might predict the next recession, or to measure how many people are unemployed, economists must aggregate a massive amount of data that can sometimes not be fully characteristic of a population. Economics frequently deals with the problems of having to collect often ambiguous data, from sometimes less than reliable sources, which may lead then to having models that lack predictive power. This often leads to frustration from both economists and the masses, who understandably get irritated about models that don't appear to accurately reflect the real world. However, some in the field have begun to recognize a potential new avenue for the aggregation of data and the facilitation of representative experiments.

Department

Economics

Subjects - Topical (LCSH)

Video games--Economic aspects; Digital currency; Economics

Genre/Form

student projects; term papers

Type

Text

Rights

Copying of this document in whole or in part is allowable only for scholarly purposes. It is understood, however, that any copying or publication of this document for commercial purposes, or for financial gain, shall not be allowed without the author’s written permission.

Rights Statement

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language

English

Format

application/pdf

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Included in

Economics Commons

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