Blog 11: Reputation

            As I look at economic problems through the lens of reputation, I realize that the situation in my last blog post has potential applications to the topic. In my last post, I talked about my bartender friend, John, and how he was encouraged to give customers more alcohol in their drinks than prescribed by the bar in order to increase his tips. The bar management's lax monitoring was what allowed the bartenders to do this. The lax monitoring likely came from both the bar management's laziness and their trust for their bartenders, as the bartenders had not (yet) developed a reputation for being unscrupulous in their work. I wonder if the bartenders ever thought of their situation in terms of their reputation and the effects that being caught "cheating" would have on it. If they had made their reputation a priority in their work, the thought of being caught and developing a reputation for dishonesty might have caused them to take a more scrupulous route. This would be due to the effects that a reputation for dishonesty could have, including the loss of their job, having a harder time finding another similar job (assuming owners of different bars talk to each other,) and experiencing closer monitoring and less freedom in their work even if they did have a job in the future. It is possible that the bartenders did not prioritize their reputation as a bartender because, in most cases, a bartending job is used as a short-term  "stepping stone" to support oneself as one transitions to another, more desirable part of their career. Maybe as the projected amount of time spent in any sort of working relationship decreases, reputation becomes less of a priority. I see this as tying into the subject of repeated coordination games, where the incentive to cheat is higher if the "end point" for the repeated games is known -- this could be especially true if the end point is projected to be soon, as it is with most bartender-management relationships.

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            During my middle school and college years, I have developed and maintained a reputation for being a strong and academically gifted student. Among my teachers, I have been known for turning in some of the best work in almost any of my classes, with my scores often being within the top 10% of the class. Among my friends, I have been known for being the one to often eschew social outings in order to be able to devote more time to my schoolwork, with my overall social life somewhat reflecting that tendency. In both of the aforementioned circles, my reputation is acknowledged fairly often. My reputation first developed during my seventh grade year, when I was strongly encouraged by my parents to work toward being a competitive applicant for a prestigious magnet high school in my area. I was so motivated by the prospect of attending that school that I hardly noticed as schoolwork began to take a higher and higher proportion of my time compared to other activities. By devoting greater resources (e.g., time) to my schoolwork and less to socializing, I achieved higher and higher scores. In hindsight, the pivotal moment for the development of my social reputation was when one of my seventh grade history essays was judged by the teacher to be so good that she read it to the class as an example of what a good essay should look like. This exposed my academic aptitude to both the teacher and the rest of my class. Other teachers noticed the quality of my work in their own classes but handled it in a quieter manner. My newfound reputation carried over into the eighth grade, and was bolstered by the news that I had been admitted to the magnet high school I was working toward. With this, my social position as one of the smartest and "nerdiest" people in the class was cemented.

            My reputation ended up dissipating during my high school years due to a combination of other students in my magnet school class being at least as strong of a student as I had been and some bouts of teenage rebellion on my part causing me to go against my parents' wishes by studying less. In college, however, I am more mature and willing to study and I am competing with an overall somewhat less prestigious peer group. This has allowed me to achieve scores that are high enough above average for my reputation to blossom again, although it is noticed a little less by both teachers and peers due to larger class sizes making an individual's performance less noticeable and fewer classes being shared with my friends. There was, however, a pivotal moment for the development of my reputation in college similar to the one in middle school. During my first semester here, my introductory macroeconomics professor held a contest to see which student could submit the overall highest quality midterm essay, and the winners were announced in lecture. I won the first prize for this "contest," which took place in a class many of my friends were also taking.

            I maintain and enhance my reputation for strong academics by continuing the patterns of behavior that led to its development -- I consistently make decisions at the margin to use chunks of time that others would likely use to have fun to study instead. For example, on an evening when many of my friends might decide to attend a party, I will often elect to stay home and study. As a college student, I also try to make a habit of attending office hours for my more difficult classes to receive help and develop a closer relationship with the instructor. The instructors notice this, which causes me to further develop my reputation with them for dedication to academic work. My reputation itself will sometimes influence my behavior by driving me to dedicate even more time to studying than I would otherwise in order to maintain it. I realize that hanging out with friends too much, not studying enough, and receiving low scores as a result will damage my reputation with both my instructors and peers and detract from my self esteem, so I do not risk establishing that pattern of behavior. This could be thought of as a "positive feedback loop" -- I have a reputation to maintain, causing me to study more, which leads to even more of a reputation. While I have achieved a high GPA as a result of this, this means that my reputation is yet another source of pressure in my life.  

            I enjoy socializing as much as the average human being does, meaning that I frequently encounter temptations to socialize more and study less than the maintenance of my GPA would require. For example, sometimes a party just a few nights before a major exam is extremely tempting to attend. When these situations arise, I will usually choose to focus on what will help me more in the long run by choosing to study (which is how I have maintained a high GPA.) On occasion, though, I do "cash in" on my reputation by abandoning it for a short period in exchange for an immediate gain in the form of fun. An example of this is when I chose to attend a party just two nights before an intermediate microeconomics exam. Some of my friends remarked on this and joked about how I should be studying. In a way, though, their jokes were comforting to me because they showed that I had already developed a strong reputation that will not be permanently destroyed by one night of fun. My scores soon after times such as these are slightly lower than usual, but since I normally make a habit of maintaining my reputation the damage is not critical. Another time that could be thought of as one where I cashed in on my reputation was during the eighth grade, when I had an event the night before a large history assignment was due and did not finish the assignment as a result. Due to my close relationship with my history instructor, I decided to be honest with her and come to her during my lunch period on the due date to tell her that my assignment which would be due in a few hours was not done yet. She told me that I was normally a good student and that she would let me turn it in the next day for full credit. Since she probably no longer thought of me as the consistently good student I was to her before, and she would be less likely to let me off as easily in the future, I managed to "cash in" on my reputation for the fun of the event the night before.