Episode 17 - Gift Giving

With the holidays completed, I thought it would be a pretty good opportunity to talk about the economics of gift giving. You may not think that something as simple as exchanging presents would rise to the level of economic theory, but it does, and in fact it tends to baffle economists for its many inconsistencies and inefficiencies. Listen as I, and the subject of economics, do our best to explain Christmas, because everybody knows that the best way to improve on something wonderful is to go into a lengthy explanation of why you're doing it wrong.