Chillin'Competition

This morning, as I was doing  a some last-minute airport shopping for a “Secret Santa” gift for my firm´s Christmas dinner in Brussels tonight, I received an email announcing that Frontier Economics has released a paper on the economics of Christmas. It wasn´t so useful for me because I had severe budget constraints, but it has the sort of fun approach that we like, and we thought you might find it useful or at least entertaining.  As they explain on their web page:

It’s easier to think of economists as the prophets of trading doom than as Santa’s little helpers – too busy telling everybody what’s happening to productivity, energy demand and like-for-like sales to provide any insights into the annual exchange of goodwill and good-or-ill gifts to family and friends. So Frontier Economics has been scouring the academic literature of behavioural economics for tips to make that last struggle with your present list a little easier…

If interested in economic advice for Christmas shopping, click here: Present values- The economics of Christmas.

And if you´re one of those who likes to “shop around” for the best deals, you can also check out Waldfogel´s seminal paper on this matter (which Nicolas already recommended last year) and The New York Times´ collection of stories about the economics of Christmas.

By the way, this week is a nervous time for competition lawyers all over Brussels waiting to see if their Christmas break will be wiped out by unexpected Christmas gifts from the Commission!

P.S. This morning we crossed the 200.000 visits threshold. Once again, thank you for taking the time to read us!