The author and his latest book was recently invoked in the Guardian article, "The economics of gift-giving: Of crackers and turkeys: In short, gift-giving is the action of a social creature rather than an economic one:" All of which makes this season something of an economic disaster. Indeed, the Wharton School's Joel Waldfogel describes present-giving at Christmas as "an orgy of wealth destruction". According to his back-of-the-till-receipt estimates, around £15bn of what we give and receive each Christmas is wasted. Or to put it another way, we are flushing away the entire annual GDP of Tanzania. It is a striking thought, and in his recent book Scroogenomics, Professor Waldfogel makes a knowingly provocative case for changing the entire cursed gift system. And yet both his assumptions in calculating that sum and the argument that he goes on to make are slightly suspect. In the process, the academic offers a gift of his own – to those who would see economists as often practising a rather antisocial science. Read that Guardian piece here.
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