Economic naturists

So its looking good for Claire and Spain -- if you note the rapid support-> victory dynamic I created yesterday by my supertips.  Even I felt sorry for Federer by the end as he managed only 1.33 games a set versus the all-conquering Mallorcan....  and we did not need to answer the question of whether it was really fair that the women got the same pay as the men for the final of the French open.  The one-sided women's final over two sets lasted a whole five minutes less than the - on paper at least - highly competitive men's final.

That sort of question -- why are women paid the same in tennis as men at all Grand Slams except Wimbledon even though they potentially do less work, is just the sort of question Robert Frank addresses in the latest populist economics outing to hit the bestseller lists.  A rather lazy book which seems to consist of rewriting a bunch of student essays.  But the basic thesis is that most people who study economics don't; become very economically literate -- but that by applying economic thinking to real world situations it becomes possible to - in the book's modest strapline "explain almost everything" and that in the process of doing so we can all become natural economists by applying such principles as opportunity costs - and a few diminishing returns.

So as Frank does it seems to be a good time to try to identify our own examples...am sure you will want to add your own ....but here are some starters for ten..

* why does it make sense for Vodafone to offer me a £ 200 credit for not upgrading my mobile against a new contract worth only £ 300 over the year? and insist that I only take out a 12 month contract rather than lock me in for 18?

* why are all decent women tennis players now from Eastern Europe when tennis is the one sport where the best women can earn on a comparable scale to men?

* why do even small District Councils seem to offer pay rates well in excess of most central government departments?and finally:

* why after years of having no bestselling populist economics books are there now so many on the market?

But I think the answer is that maybe economics - at least conventional neoclassical economics - explains rather less than Professor Frank thinks.  It ignores the role of culture; it ignores institutions; and it assumes we are all the rational beasts that we know we are not.  And it runs the risk of pretending that there is a rational justification for what just looks like bad business in the case of Vodafone.