Starting with Santa currency, states saying Christmas is an official holiday, and Christmas trees, in the 19th century holiday spending on Christmas grew.…
Weekly Roundup: From Venezuela’s French Fries to the Army’s Pizza
Posts Roundup Sunday 11.01.15 How to be inches away from getting hired…more Monday 11.02.15 Why one-child could be here to stay…more Tuesday 11.03.15 The army food we eat at home…mor…
How to Make the Invisible Hand Disappear
With shortages of basic necessities, price controls, lack of foreign exchange and rising prices, Venezuela’s inflation rate is soaring.…
Lessons We Can Learn From a Pizza
Relating to the environment, prices and innovation, a pizza box illustrates that in economics the invisible can be more important than what we see.…
Weekly Roundup: From Baseball Contracts to Super Bowl Ads
Our week’s everyday economics include inflation, supply and demand, income mobility, property rights, incentives, default, CDS, and monopoly pricing.…
Can Economists See the Hot Hand?
With implications that extend beyond sports, believers in classical economics and in behavioral economics are debating whether players can have streaks.…
Hey, Spotify. Taylor Swift called. She wants her money.
With the music industry moving from CDs to streaming, firms like Spotify have created new supply and demand and new incentives for performers and providers.…
Are We Getting Squeezed by Lemon Growers?
Supply and demand have upped lemon prices. For supply, there was a drought and freeze in California; while popularity and pricier limes have led to increased demand.…
The Rotten Kid Theorem and Other Gary Becker Ideas
Gary Becker image courtesy of University of Chicago. All too often, if you say you are looking at the economics of the family, people assume you are talking about money. Nobel Laureate Gary Becker, wh…
Brazil's World Cup To-Do List
Preparing its transportation infrastructure for the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics, Brazil has one giant to-do list. In the air and on the ground, it has the participants, the officials and the …