Main Economic Laws Professor Spearman example essay topic

"Murder at the Margin", by Marshall Jevons, is a well written mystery novel that depicts the relationship between economics and everyday life. It shows how we make use of economic reasoning and decisions based on economic ideals that some might have no idea about. Economic theory and reasoning are used to solve a murder that traditional methods were unable to decipher. "Murder at the Margin" is not an economic textbook by any means, it is a classical detective story with all the ingredients to interest even the most avid of mystery enthusiasts. Professor Henry Spearman, an academician at Harvard University, taught economic reasoning to his students. He took is job seriously and spent more time researching economics than he did preparing lectures for his students.

Professor Spearman and his wife, Podge, took a well-needed vacation from work and were headed to a place called Cinnamon Bay Plantation on St. John, an ideal Caribbean getaway. On the ferry to the island, Professor Spearman and his wife ran into his Harvard colleague, the celebrated theologian Professor Matthew Dyke. While at the island the Spearman's met many different characters of people. They met Justice Foote, a former senator from a Midwestern state and then went on to the Supreme Court where he retired, and his wife.

Then they met Felicia Doakes, cousin of General Hudson T. Decker (Ret.) whose daily breakfast was plotted out like a battlefield and every detail was attended to, down to the opaqueness of the bacon. Jay Pruitt and his wife were also introduced in the dining room during breakfast. A black man named Ricky Lemans led the nightly band that played at the Hotel, the Raiders. While Professor Spearman was at the beach, he ran into Dr. Doug and Judy Clark.

They like going to dance clubs on the other islands and seemed to be the party type of people. Franklin Vincent was the detective on the Cruz Bay police force. He was investigating the death of General Decker who had been poisoned after leaving the Hotel. A disgruntled man named Fitzhugh was thought to have drowned while swimming in the bay. Also, Justice Foote was also murdered on one of the famous hiking trails around the island. The investigation progressed and pointed to the leaders of a Black power group led by Ricky Lemans and General Decker's waiter.

While Investigator Vincent is off chasing uncultivated leads, Professor Spearman is conducting his own investigation from the economic aspect. He takes notes of the guest's trends and follows the patterns that people either choose to follow or claim to follow. He takes note of how the guest select their food and analyzes what their opportunity cost might be and then this evolves into noticing how the guest use their free time and economic decisions they make during their stay. He observes how the General's cousin retires early to read or work on her own projects.

Professor Spearman remembered how the Clark's sent their children home so they could be by themselves and spend less money and stay at a better hotel. They also mentioned they love dancing and now they wouldn't have to travel to the other islands, Cruz bay, to do this. He takes note as to where people travel such as the archeologist Laura Burke as well as Justice Foote. Henry is so accustomed with demand, questioning not why people do things, but instead what makes people do things. He analyzes choices people make and trade-off's they encounter. He also ponders why the band plays some days and not on others where they could make the same, if not more money.

Henry's keen sense of what makes people do things that allows him to slowly eliminate people from his list of possible suspects. Professor Spearman concluded that the Clarks had killed the general because he proved that even with their children, they were spending less at their other hotel. After they sent their children home, they went to the Cinnamon hotel claiming it was cheaper and nicer. It was a non-economical decision and this pointed the finger at them. Such odd behaviors as this also led the Professor to solve the other murders. He proved that the two suspects that had signed confessions were innocent proving that they made a microeconomic decision during questioning.

He explained that with all the coincidental evidence that pointed at them, they were better off confessing than to take it to trial. The signed confessions would get them a lesser term, so they made a trade-off. He also figured that Ricky Lemans, the bandleader, did not play for three hundred dollars because something that Saturday was worth more to him than his normal performance. He again used economic reasoning to conclude that he could have made the money for playing, and just commit his crimes on another night, doubling his profit, so Lemans was innocent.

Professor Spearman began to look at Mr. Fitzhugh. He remembered how he was accustomed to cutting every corner, and saved all his pennies he could. He gave the clerk a hard time when he was told it was a thirty dollar deposit to rent the fins, and he tried to buy them off of her, even though he would get his thirty dollars in return of the snorkeling fins. He also noticed that for a man that saved every penny, it was odd that the cap on the suntan lotion was left open. It seemed he would have closed it and this was another non-systematic behavior if Mr. Fitzhugh. He was a very strong swimmer also, how would he have drowned in the same water that the Professor was swimming in, not being a good swimmer himself.

He reasoned that this man could reach a secluded island off the bay to hide out for a little while. When Professor Spearman took his wife to the island they ran into Mr. Fitzhugh, which turned out to be Dr. Doug Clark's brother. This put everything in place. Supply and Demand was the bread and butter for Henry Spearman's total existence and everything in life rolled through this one principle. Other main economic laws Professor Spearman used were the law of negative returns, opportunity cost, supply cost, and utility. Supply and Demand and also supply costing was used when Professor Spearman explained why Felicia Doakes chose her price for her cookbook.

The Law of negative returns helped the Professor to realize that it was odd that Mr. Fitzhugh still paid for the fin rentals even though his tightness with his money would get him a negative return from the use of the fins, yet he paid for them anyway, as to show he really needed the use of the fins. Professor Spearman solved the mysteries through is expertise in economic reasoning. The novel demonstrated how everyday decisions we make are based off of economic laws such as opportunity cost, and utility. Down to the way Professor Dyke had purchased more drinks during happy hour and even offered to buy others drinks, yet he bought substantially less during the full price times. This novel was very interesting and for me, surprisingly entertaining considering that some people do not deem microeconomics a very interesting subject, and would find it hard to read a book on it.

After reading, "Murder at the Margin", it seemed I would think about the decisions I have just made and put it into economic reasoning. I sincerely believe that this novel changed the way I perceive the choices we make. I would recommend this novel to anyone interested in economics or not, and also the avid mystery enthusiasts..