A Little Economics…

… won’t hurt you, honest.

– Lynne Kiesling reports on a Chicago restaurant with an interesting approach to pricing. It sounds good to me. I like the idea of being able to get good food at a lower price because otherwise the posh restaurant would be half empty on a Wednesday night.

– Doug Elliott finds a very succinct explanation as to why information overload is such a pain (and spam so annoying).

– And at The Economist they are talking about the influence of tribalism on economic behavior. It seems that human beings are not rational after all (doh!). I’m pleased that people other than political demagogues are starting to think about this, but at the same time I worry that understanding it better is only going to allow people to manipulate us poor monkeys more efficiently.

4 thoughts on “A Little Economics…

  1. There’s a guy that recently has been a hot guest on serious chat shows (e.g. Charlie Rose), covering this topic in relation to the recent economic “excitement”. Rather interesting.

    I believe this is him and his book: “Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions” by Dan Ariely.

  2. Thanks for pointing out Next Restaurant. I wonder what other locations and periods they’ll do. Makes me glad I’m a local.

  3. Marketing research is and may always be way, way ahead of behavioral economics. So don’t worry about anything announced by economists being used for new forms of manipulation; think of it as a way of understanding the manipulation you already encounter.

  4. I’ve lately taken to listening to stories I wouldn’t have taken the time to read, because you can listen to the story while playing mindless games, or otherwise multitask. As far as I know, all have also been available in some text format, so if I care enough I can go back and read it (which I have on several occasions).

    So yes, I’d say it helps at least some.

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