Econundrum finals

Rules
1. There are 30 questions. Each question is worth 10 points.
2. Rules of bounce and pounce are applicable, i.e.
● If the question is passed on to the next team, (bounced) and if they guess it,
they will be awarded 10 points. No negative marking for wrong answers.
● Bounce window is 30 seconds.
● Teams can choose to pounce, i.e. can write the answer on the sheet provided
and show it to the quizmaster, before waiting for the question to bounce to
them. Correct pounces are worth 5 points, and 5 marks will be deducted for
the wrong answer.
● Pounce Window is 45 seconds.
3. After 15 questions, there is a Grand Connect. Guidelines for that will be
mentioned later on.
4. The quizmaster’s decision is final.

Q1. Triple witching occurs when the contracts for stock index futures, stock index
options and stock options expire on the same day. Triple witching days happen
four times a year - on the third Friday of March, June, September and December.
Triple witching days, particularly the final hour of trading preceding the closing
bell, can result in escalated trading activity and volatility as traders close, roll out
or offset their expiring positions.
Since 2002, triple witching days have also included the expiration of single stock
futures, meaning there are actually four types of expiring contracts, but the term
"quadruple witching" has never caught on.
Thanks to the time of it’s happening, it has a nickname, which is also the name of
a movie.
What is the nickname?

Freaky Friday
“Yesterday was freaky.”

Q2. One cockroach found in the house usually implies that there are many more.
This is roughly the idea behind the ‘Cockroach Theory’.
One of the famous case studies under this theory would be Enron. In October
2001, reports emerged that energy company Enron, which had been upheld as a
model of success for U.S. corporations, had for years been engaging in deceptive
accounting practices that misled investors and the public. By August 2002, Enron
was in bankruptcy.
The Enron scandal implied that illegal accounting practices might be more
widespread than originally believed and alerted regulators and the investing public
to potential financial misconduct. Over the next year and a half, similar accounting
scandals brought down a host of companies, including WorldCom, Tyco and
Adelphia.
So, what does the cockroach theory state, in respect to businesses?

Cockroach theory posits that when
a company reveals bad news to
the public, there may be many
more related negative events yet
to be revealed.
The term comes from the common
belief that seeing one cockroach is
usually evidence that there are
many more.

Q3. This company had to face a lot of issues from trespassers, thanks to an
internet trend. The trend reportedly started when two teenagers ‘trespassed’ into
one of their stores in Belgium during night-time, then posted a video of their
exploits online.
According to the Associated Press, this company has recorded about 10 such
incidents in the past year in the United States, Canada, Britain, Belgium, the
Netherlands, Sweden, Japan, Australia and Poland. The agency said it was
unclear whether anyone had been prosecuted.
Which Company? What were the trespassers doing?

Ikea. People were spending
nights at their stores, and
uploading videos.

Q4. "American Economic Growth and the Voyage of Columbus," was a paper
written by R. Preston McAfee.
In order to prove his claim he made in the paper, he constructed a model of the
earth. “A new analytic procedure, the highly touted Fractured Reconstructive
Autoerotic Projection Package with Econometrization (FRAPPE), from my 1983
study is used to detail the properties of the counter-factual world. These results
are summarized in the third section."
What was he trying to learn the effects of?

He wrote his paper on how
World Economy would
have turned out had the
Earth been flat and
Columbus would have
fallen off the Earth.
Your neighbourhood conspiracy theory.

Q5. James Heckman titled one of his works as "The Effect of Prayer on God's
Attitude Toward Mankind". Heckman criticised a particular theory says that one
can find out how a variable Y (about which nothing is known) is related with
another variable X whose distribution is well known.
He did this by taking his own variables X (which was known) and Y (which was
unknown).
What did Heckman take as X and Y?

X- Intensity of
prayers among
population
Y- God's attitude
towards mankind
Yes. That's the graph he made.

Q6. Environmental economics is about this necessary intervention in the workings
of the economy. It’s about the questions of: how much environmental quality do
we want and what’s the best way of getting it.
This industry, along with oil (and other inexhaustible energies) industry is treated
as an enemy by this discipline.
The global market of this industry is valued at 3 trillion dollars, 3,000 billion, and
accounts for 2 percent of the world’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Almost 75% of the world’s market of this industry is concentrated in Europe, USA,
China and Japan.
Problem is, we now have developing sources of renewable energy (to tackle oil
and gas), but this industry does not have any alternatives (as of now at least).
Name the Industry.

Fashion Industry
Feel-good fashion?

Q7. “This paper is chiefly concerned with the following question: how should
interest charges on goods in transit be computed when the goods travel at
close to the speed of light? This is a problem because the time taken in
transit will appear less to an observer travelling with the goods than to
a stationary observer. A solution is derived from economic theory, and
two useless but true theorems are proved."
This is an excerpt from one of Paul Krugman’s work. What kind of trade is he
referring to?

Interstellar Trade
Changing the concept of the
United Nations.

Q8. What are these tweets referring to?
if i had a _______ for every time someone tried to explain _______s to me i'd
have a lot of _______s and no idea what to do with them - @adrianjxmes
It appears Venezuela may soon have two centrally mismanaged currencies
instead of one -@aantonop
Thoughts and prayers to anyone whose parents ask them what _______ is over
the holidays. Bone-chilling stuff -@pattymo
Put $14.00 into _______ last Thursday sitting on $22.00 now lmaoo idk how y’all
do that 9-5 stuff -@Doomric

Q9. Joel Waldfogel is an American economist and the Frederick R. Kappel Chair
in Applied Economics at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of
Management. In the past, he was an economics professor at Yale. In 1993, he
caused massive outrage thanks to his paper written on a popular practice, done
on various occasions, from marriage to birthdays to other festivals.
While it was related to behavioral economics, an upcoming field, it ended up
reinforcing Economics’ reputation as ‘The ‘Dismal Science’.
What practice? What was the occasion he particularly wrote on?

The Practice of Gift-
giving. He especially
wrote about ‘The
deadweight loss of
Christmas’.
Grinchonomics.

Q10. Filming for Rage Against The Machine's "Sleep Now In The Fire" music
video forced X to shut its gates much before its closing time after band members
attempted to rush the floor. "For a few minutes, Rage Against the Machine was
able to shut down capitalism," said Michael Moore, the music video director.
Moore also added that they shot the video in that particular location because they
wanted to shoot this video in the ‘belly of the beast’.
Name X.

New York Stock Exchange
“The world is my
expense..
The cost of my desire..
Jesus blessed me with
its future..
And I protect it with
fire”

Q11. The Geary–Khamis dollar is a hypothetical unit of currency that has the
same purchasing power parity that the U.S. dollar had in the United States at a
given point in time. It is based on the twin concepts of purchasing power parities
(PPP) of currencies and the international average prices of commodities. It shows
how much a local currency unit is worth within the country's borders.
The year 1990 or 2000 is often used as a benchmark year for comparisons that
run through time. The unit is often abbreviated e.g. 2000 US dollar (if the
benchmark year is 2000) or 2000 Int'l$.
What is it commonly known as, owing to its ability to be used in any country for the
sake of comparison?

International Dollar
Also called, PPP
dollars.

Q12. The publisher, William Morrow, used X to pioneer a new marketing style:
the use of small-scale book review blogs to generate hype. A special publicity
firm, BzzAgent, was called in to distribute the book to nearly 1,000 "possible
supporters" to consider for online review. This "word-of-mouth" technique has
been used for numerous new titles since, but X was the first book to see a great
return from the method.
X has been a controversial book, with an academic lawsuit associated with it. It
has also been accused of academic imperialism. A lot of critics argues that X is
actually a sociology book, not an economics book. It also has a movie based on
it.
Name X.

Freakonomics
A Rogue Economist Explores the
Hidden Side of Everything.

Q13. In 1997 British Airways adopted a new livery. One part of this was the
introduction of _______ art. Also known as the Utopia or world image_______(s),
they used art and designs from international artists and other sources to represent
countries on the airline’s route network.
It was met with criticism from many of the residents of the UK, despite nine of the
designs being inspired by either England, Scotland or Wales. Former Prime
Minister Margaret Thatcher showed her displeasure at the designs by covering
one of the new _______ on a model 747 with tissue paper. She declared, "We fly
the British flag, not these awful things." Thatcher also indicated with these fins the
airline would lose its identity.
What were the changes made to the planes under British airlines?

Tail-fin Art
Paithani Chelsea Rose
Dutch Delft Blomstereng

Q14.
Hamlet is one of the most famous plays by Shakespeare. The Character
X King Claudius’s chief counsellor, and the father of Ophelia and
Laertes. In Act 3 Scene 1, X gives an important lesson to his son:
“Neither a borrower, nor a lender be, for loan oft loses both itself and
friend, and borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.”
The concept behind this line is is now commonly referred to as X point
in economics.
The king’s chief advisor gives an important lesson to his son
State the dialogue and name the microeconomic concept.

Polonius Point -
The Polonius point is
where an agent is neither a
borrower nor a lender but is
consuming all of the income
endowed within a time
period during the time
period.
based on the line other than “To be or
not to be.”

Q15. Identify the person using the clues.
X studied and later taught moral philosophy at the University of Glasgow, and was
known for his passion for liberty and free speech. This isn’t what he is more
famously known for.
X has a minor planet named in their memory, even though he is not related to the
field of astronomy at all.
X was trained to be an Anglican priest but never took vows. He did however, write
on a theory of moral sentiments.
X was briefly kidnapped by gypsies as a child before being returned.

Adam Smith
It is not from the benevolence of the
butcher, the brewer, or the baker
that we expect our dinner, but from
their regard to their own interest.

Grand Connect
Rules:
● If the person takes up the Grand Connect after the first question, they will be
awarded 5 points.
● After the second, 4; after the third 3 and so on.
● Once you have attempted the Grand Connect, you can not re-attempt it, if you
guess incorrectly.

Q1. This vehicle company is really popular in europe, so much so that 90% of its
sales happen in europe. What is more interesting, is that this company has
teamed up with the makers of The Walking Dead to produce Zombie Apocalypse
Survival Machines, and presented the Veloster Turbo at San Diego Comic Con
2017.
What company?

Q2. This company, in 2010, was the world's largest steel manufacturing company
by market value. Also, in 2012, it was named as the 146th world's largest
corporations by the Fortune global 500.
Its Indian subsidiary of this company landed into social and environmental
controversies in Odisha and Karnataka, which have still not been solved.
The controversies are known as _______ fiasco.
What company?

Q3. This company is headquartered in a place named after it. In the past, the
company has been associated with sugar refining, paper products, woollen mill,
departmental stores and insurance enterprises, before branching out into its
current domain. The company made its presence felt in United States. It was
granted more patents than any other company in 2015, with 7,679 out of 4443
application, which also topped the list. This is apart from 1,352 design patents
during the same time frame.
What company?

Q4. This company was created in 1958 with the name GoldStar. It had another
entity, which was then merged with it, naming it Lucky GoldStar. Their slogans
used to be “future’s technology” and “digitally yours” before settling on the current
one. The company is pretty high up on Greenpeace’s ‘Guide to Greener
Electronics‘. They currently hold the 12th spot with a 3.5/10 score.
What company?

Hyundai
“New thinking, new possibilities.”

Q3. This company is headquartered in a place named after it. It’s name literally
means ‘three stars’, representing something big. In the past, the company has
been associated with sugar refining, paper products, woollen mill, departmental
stores and insurance enterprises, before branching out into its current domain.
The company made its presence felt in United States. It was granted more patents
than any other company in 2015, with 7,679 out of 4443 application, which also
topped the list. This is apart from 1,352 design patents during the same time
frame.
What company?

Samsung
“Do What You Can't”

Q16. This phenomenon was the largest mass migration in US history. Every 1 in
90 people moved to this place in hopes of becoming rich, and that fast tracked the
statehood of this place. In fact, the early sections of one of the major cities in the
state had to be made out of abandoned ships. Funnily enough, the man known for
starting this phenomenon died poor and bitter in Pennsylvania, failing to get
reimbursements from the US government.
Name the phenomenon and the person.

California Gold Rush, 1849
John Sutter
In the days of old, in the days of gold,
How oft-times I repine
For the days of old when we dug up
the gold
In the days of '49.

Q17. Economics has many categories for “goods”. “Luxury Goods” are items that
people buy more of as their income rises, as opposed to “Necessity Goods” like
food and shelter, whose demand is unrelated to income.
The X Effect is the theory that during an economic calamity, people buy more less
costly luxury goods. Instead of buying a fur coat, people will buy expensive X. The
idea is that people buy luxury goods even during economic hardships, they will
just choose goods that have less of an impact on their funds. Other such less
expensive luxury goods other than cosmetics include expensive beer and small
gadgets.
Interestingly, after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on America, it was reported that sales
of X increased.
State X.

Lipstick
(Lipstick Effect)
‘High-end’ luxury.

Q18. The term X came into official use with the passage of the “ X Act” in 1720
by the British Parliament. England had recently granted the South Sea
Company the right to take over its war debt in exchange for exclusive trading
rights in the gold and silver rich South American colonies.
Investors quickly inflated the share prices of South Sea, similar trading
companies, and other “X” companies that the act sought to curb.
What was X?

Q19. Filling his room with IKEA furniture and drinking Starbucks coffee, the main
character of this movie is the epitome of consumer culture being fooled by the
corporations that rely on the public. With civil rights movements and the uprise of
LEDC’s (lower economically developed countries), the 90’s-00’s was very much a
time of transition and confusion in America with many of the professionals, such
as the main character, falling through the cracks and being overlooked by the
American government and the idealistic American Dream.
Name the film.

Fight Club
“God damn it, an entire
generation pumping gas, waiting
tables - slaves with white collars.
Advertising has us chasing cars
and clothes, working jobs we
hate so we can buy shit we don't
need.”

Q20. The event is preceded by a Halwa ceremony wherein the sweet dish is
served to the officers and staff involved in the printing of the documents,
following the traditional belief that having something sweet before any important
task is auspicious.
The printing of the documents starts roughly a week before the date of the
event. The employees involved in the process are kept in complete isolation
(quarantine) in the Finance Ministry during this time till the event.
What event?

The Indian Budget Presentation

Q21. The social elite continued to hang large tapestries on the walls of their
homes, as they had in the Middle Ages. These tapestries added color to the room
as well as providing an insulating layer between the stone walls and the room,
thus retaining heat in the room. However, tapestries were extremely expensive, so
less well-off members of the elite, turned to X to brighten up their rooms.
This product Y was originally invented as a X, but failed. The makers later realized
that it could be used for a different purpose, and found the Sealed Air Corporation
based on this invention.
Name the product (Y).

Bubble Wrap
Well, we all know the
more fun way of using it.

Q22. This English economist’s work armed reformers attacking the agricultural
aristocracy’s political, social and economic privileges. Comparatively, he had a
more interesting life than other economists. When he married a Quaker, his iron-
clad orthodox father cut him off. He became a Unitarian, and at 22, with a capital
of £800 and support from the financial community, he became an independent
stockbroker. At 42 he retired with a fortune of about £1 million and established
himself as a landed proprietor.
Who?

David Ricardo
"It is here we come to the heart of
the matter. The economic
principle of comparative
advantage', 'a country may, in
return for manufactured
commodities, import corn even if it
can be grown with less labour
than in the country from which it is
imported.“ (Comparative
Advantage)

Q23. The X index was invented by Y as an easily translatable way to monitor
international currency exchange by comparing the average price of a X in each
country.
The prominent magazine Y calls the tool "arguably the world's most accurate
financial indicator to be based on a food item." Before being called X, the item was
actually called ‘the Aristocrat’ and ‘the Blue Ribbon’.
Name X and Y.

Big Mac Index,
The Economist
Since 1986.

Q24. Due to this yearly event in the US, nearly one third of retail sales happen in
just one month. The event got its name due to the fact that the masses of people
going out to shop caused traffic accidents, violence and overcrowding. In fact, due
to this event, in 2012, two people were shot outside of a Walmart in Tallahassee,
Florida. They were fighting over a parking space. In 2011, a woman pepper-
sprayed a crowd of shoppers inside Walmart's electronics department in Los
Angeles.
What event?

Black Friday Sale
Shop Till You Drop.

Q25. The company began in 1911 as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording
Company (CTR), and changed several names and logos before it came to be
called by X, its current name. The current logo, designed by Paul Rand, was
introduced in 1972. The horizontal stripes forming the letters of X are suggestive
of the 'speed and dynamism'.
Employees of X have been awarded five Nobel Prizes, six Turing Awards, ten
National Medals of Technology (USA) and five National Medals of Science (USA).
State X.

Q26. Neil French was hired by X
to make this ad.
State X.

Dove
“Dove is all you need to know
about skincare.”

Q27. A recent Forbes article had caused quite a controversy. In it, the author–who
is listed as a contributor on the site– and wanted Amazon to replace X, stating that
X(s) across the world are seeing a diminishing crowd, and are shutting down
rapidly anyways. It was a classic neo-free-market analysis, one that didn’t sit well
with many people online. Forbes did end up taking down the article later.
What is X? According to the writer, in what way was Amazon supposed to replace
X?

The writer suggested
that public libraries
should be shut down,
and in place of them,
Amazon Bookstores
should be opened.
Thrifty bibliophiles unite.

Q28. He developed what became known as a “pump and dump” system. He
would persuade friends and relatives to act as “rat holes” for him — they would
buy stock in their name but using his money, thereby restricting the supply and
boosting the share price. His employees — at one point numbering more than
1,000 — would then sell the shares at the top of the market. He has had a major
film made about his life.
Name him.

Jordan Belfort
From the ‘Wolf of Wall Street’
fame.

Q29 Sixteen Tons" is a 1947 song written by Merle Travis. This has been
covered by more than 30 artists worldwide, the most famous being Tennessee
Ernie Ford’s version.
The line "You load sixteen tons and what do you get? Another day older and
deeper in debt" came from a letter written by Travis's brother John. Another line
came from their father, who would say: "I can't afford to die. I owe my soul to the
company store."
What occupation did his father and his brother John belong to, about which the
song was written in the first place?

Coal Miners
"You load sixteen tons and what
do you get? Another day older and
deeper in debt"

Q30. The origin of the word “X" is ascribed to the manufacture of ____ at Rome
in 269 BC at the temple of Juno Moneta. This goddess became the
personification of money. Roman X(s) were spread widely across the Empire,
and were sometimes used for propaganda purposes, with rulers using their
images on the ____(s).
In the past, X(s) had workers using their hands and basic tools like hammers, but
in modern times, this process is now completely mechanized.
State X.

Mint
The ultimate destination
for thieves in most movies.

Q31. A perverse incentive in economics is an incentive that has an unintended
and undesirable effect which is opposite to the initial interests. A type of
unintended consequences, perverse incentives are the result of an honest good
intention.
A historical example illustrates the problem: 19th century paleontologists
traveling to China used to pay peasants for each piece of dinosaur bone that they
presented. However, the plan had an unexpected outcome.
What did the peasants end up doing?

The peasants used to
shatter the bones and
made the
paleontologists pay for
every piece.
Perverse incentives.

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