Rock guided by an invisible hand

They may not be performing at Spring Fling, but they still inspired a few "econ screams" at their latest concert on March 28.

The Contractions, a cover band made up almost entirely of economics professors, has been performing together for the past 12 years, "wherever economists got together" - such as at conferences - Economics professor and keyboardist Gwen Eudey said.

The band formed during Skit Night, a night for economics graduate students to parody faculty and their eccentricities, Eudey explained.

That night, Economics professor and lead guitarist Randy Wright joined then graduate students Peter Norman and Morris Davis in the song Sweet Jane. Afterwards, they thought, "This is pretty fun," Wright said.

Six months later, Wright, Norman, Davis and three others began practicing, Wright said.

"It evolved over time," Eudey said. Some members have left, others have joined, but there are still four in Philadelphia who practice about once a week. "And before a gig, we'll get together and practice very intently for a couple of days."

The band mostly performs at conferences, which, depending on the number of conferences, averages at about one performance a month.

They come from a variety of musical backgrounds, such as Michigan State University professor Andrei Shevchenko, who was a classically trained singer in Moscow, with Eudey herself being a flautist.

Wright, on the other hand, picked up guitar before he went to college and continued playing, just to "pass time during the day" before taking it more seriously later on.

As a band, they stick to mostly classic rock-and-roll cover songs, a result of the audience wanting to sing along, Eudey explained.

The band's unique name has several interpretations, according to Wright.

First and foremost, "a contraction is a mathematical function used in economics," he said.

This kind of inspiration is evidence that the members of The Contractions are, at the end of the day, economics professors.

Eudey teaches macroeconomics to undergraduates, while Wright mostly teaches monetary theory and macroeconomics to graduate students, along with an undergraduate class called "Markets with Frictions."

Consequently, they often extend invitations for their students to come to the performances.

"We send out e-mails, tell them to behave themselves and don't bring fake IDs," Eudey said. "About 12 Econ 002 students showed up [March 28]."

"Lots of the Ph.D. students always come," Wright added. "They always get a big kick out of it."

Students will have to stick to hearing them live, though.

Because most of their songs are covers of copyrighted songs, they won't have a CD any time soon, Eudey said, but they are still talking about studio time to record five or six songs in the near future.

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