Jaret Treber joined Kenyon’s faculty in 2005. Treber’s research focuses on how regulations in the funeral industry have shaped competition and impacted prices and the availability of services. He is also interested in the application of economic analysis to amateur and professional sports and has published articles examining the impact of work stoppages on fan demand in the National Hockey League and the behavior of ticket prices in resale markets leading up to major sporting events. Prior to graduate school, Treber worked for three years as a financial analyst and premium rate analyst in the Medicare supplemental insurance industry.

Treber teaches courses on the principles of microeconomics, econometrics, sports economics and the economics of regulation and he is a winner of Kenyon’s Trustee Teaching Excellence Award.

Areas of Expertise

Sports economics and the economics of regulation

Education

2005 — Doctor of Philosophy from University of Arizona

2001 — Master of Arts from University of Arizona

1997 — Bachelor of Arts from Western Washington University

Courses Recently Taught

This course studies issues of economic choice, economic efficiency and social welfare. The course presents theories of consumer and producer behavior and shows how these theories can be used to predict the consequences of individual, business and government actions. Topics covered include opportunity cost; the gains from trade; supply and demand analysis; taxes; externalities; price controls; consumer choice; production and cost; product pricing and market structure. This course is required for the major. No prerequisite. Offered every fall semester.

Econometrics is the application of statistical techniques to test economic models. This course offers an introduction to the theoretical and practical aspects of econometrics. Emphasis will be given to linear regression techniques, special problems associated with linear regression, and the interpretation of results. In short, economic explanations of behavior are quantified and hypotheses are tested with data using statistical techniques. Students will make extensive use of Stata; a statistical software package that is popular among economists; to create and modify data sets and obtain experience learning to apply appropriate econometric methods. This course is required for the major. Prerequisite: ECON 101, 102 and a college course in statistics or a score of 4 or 5 on the Statistics AP exam. This course cannot be taken as pass/D/fail. Generally offered every semester.

This course will examine government regulation of the behavior of individuals, firms, industries and markets. The first half of the course will focus on the economic regulation (and deregulation) of industries and occupations. Examples of government-imposed restrictions on prices, quantities and the freedom to enter and exit industries and occupations will be drawn from medical services, funeral services and entertainment industries. The second half of the course will focus on various types of social regulations, focusing on health and safety regulations. Throughout the course, we will explore the economic rationales for the regulations and evaluate their effects upon economic efficiency. Prerequisite: ECON 101 and 102. Generally offered every fourth year.

This seminar will explore professional and amateur sports from an economic perspective. Aside from recreational and entertainment appeal, the sporting world provides a wealth of applications to several fields in economics such as industrial organization (antitrust and franchising), public finance (stadium financing) and labor economics (labor market discrimination) among others. This course will give students an opportunity to apply theory covered in the core courses of the economics major to explain developments in the world of sports. The course will consist of lectures, readings, class discussions and assessments including individual research papers and class presentations. This counts toward the seminar requirement for the major. Prerequisite: ECON 201 and 205. Generally offered every year.