Dear Economist,
Can economics help me pick out the perfect Christmas gift for my brother?
Tim Maly, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Dear Tim,
Your letter obliges me to disinter the influential research of the economist Joel Waldfogel on the “deadweight loss of Christmas”. Fifteen years ago, Waldfogel published an academic article demonstrating that the recipients of gifts would not generally have been willing to pay what it cost to provide the gift. A ￡30 sweater was valued at ￡20, for example, creating a “deadweight loss” of ￡10. Siblings were not the most incompetent givers – that honour goes to aunts and uncles – but they were not especially competent either.
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