Critical Reading: Unintended Consequences

Based on the reading of Stigler, George. 1984. “An Academic Episode,” in The Intellectual and the Marketplace. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, Chapter 1, pp. 3-9, it tells how a policy made in the education sector might lead to a desirable consequences as intended, but later will lead to disastrous unintended consequences which much efforts are required to mend it. The policy is that a person can challenge its upper level position in the academia and if he wins he gets a promotion. The initial result is very positive but soon problems arise like research stopped, injustice happens in between and so on. In the end nobody really knows which this policy may lead to. 


In Gans, Joshua. “The Most Unusual Day,” Core Economic, it illustrates the point that a government policy on birth rate and incentives lead to unintended consequences. Initially the birth policy was to reduce the cost of the health care in hospital by giving subsidy to babies born after certain dates. However, pregnant women reacts to incentives and their behaviors change, subsequently resulting in a crowded hospital packed with people after that particular date. 


The questions that I came out with the unintended consequences are,
1. it seems that every action that we did will definitely carry some unintended consequences, then what should we really do?
2. Mr Rizzo keeps incentivise-ing us in the class by giving us money around, using money to buy credits, so on... ... what's the unintended consequences? Are we encouraged to become very economized and leads to academic dishonesty?
3. If most economic model are unable to falsify a hypothesis or proof, like for instance the causation fallacy, how do you proof that this particular action is the cause of that particular unintended consequences?

From my personal view, the idea of unintended consequences is something that we couldn't really see and since it is an unintended consequences it would be very hard for us to really predict what would actually happen in the future. Conclusion, every policy has to be revised on and on and on again to reduce the negative effect of unintended consequences.