A few years ago Joel Waldfogel wrote “Scroogeonomics: Why You Shouldn’t Buy Presents for the Holidays,” an economic manifesto about the wastefulness of gift-giving. The Initiative on Global Markets at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business recently queried its panel of 46 economic experts on the subject, and the responses were surprisingly less Grinch-like.
A slim majority — 54 percent — said they “disagree” or “strongly disagree” with this statement: “Giving specific presents as holiday gifts is inefficient, because recipients could satisfy their preferences much better with cash.” Of course I wonder whether respondents felt comfortable expressing their genuine beliefs on this matter.
Here’s a selection of comments that economists submitted with their responses:
David Cutler, Harvard: “I don’t want to be a scrooge!”
Angus Deaton, Princeton: “This is the sort of narrow view that rightly gives economics bad name.”
David Autor, M.I.T.: “Are you serious? Presents serve multiple interpersonal purposes. Revealed preference indicates that income transfer is not the primary one.”
Nancy Stokey, University of Chicago: “For many (most?) gifts, ‘efficiency’ is not the point.”
Richard Thaler, University of Chicago: “Is this a trivial price theory quiz or an interesting behavioral question? To test price theory, try a cash gift next Valentine’s Day.”
As we’ve noted before: These panel responses do not necessarily reflect the beliefs of all economists, the way a traditional poll might aim to. Rather, the panelists are among the more elite members of their profession and were selected to represent some of the better-known conservative, liberal, young and old scholars. A full list of the respondents and their comments — as well as their views on more hard-core policy issues like the minimum wage — can be found at the IGM Forum Web site.