This week I was slammed with work, and at some point had to find time to fit in a 3 hour take-home midterm for my memory distortions class. The only time that I could carve out 3 consecutive hours to take this test before the deadline was unfortunately Thursday night from 7-10 pm. My roommates were out for most of the time that I was taking the test, but they started coming back in with our other friends around 9, right when I was starting to feel the time crunch as I started my essay question on retrieval practice. For them, it was a regular Thursday night, and they were having fun in the living room, which is right next to my room, meaning I could hear everything and kept getting distracted.
I thought of the Coase theorem and his two key assumptions about the nonexistence of transaction costs and clearly defined property rights. I considered striking a deal with them, in which they compensated me for every minute they spent talking in the living room and disrupting the silence. I realized, however, that we did not have clearly defined property rights. We all live in the apartment and pay for equal ownership of areas such as the living room, and I could not be sure if they would have to pay me, or if I would be stuck paying them for some peace and quiet. I only had an hour left to finish my test at this point, so instead of spending my time working out the correct Coasian solution, I just opened my door and politely asked them to be a little quieter.
No comments:
Post a Comment