"Frank is the rare economist with a gift for irony. And economic ironies abound in The Economic Naturalist."

--New York Times Book Review

"The Economic Naturalist will add momentum to the overdue campaign to take economics back from the mathematicians and root it in everyday lives of consumers, workers, investors and entrepreneurs."

--Washington Post BookWorld

Enigmas from everyday life:Why is there a light in your refrigerator but not in your freezer Why do 24-hour convenience stores have locks on their doors Why are newspapers, but not soft drinks, sold in vending machines that allow Why customers to take more units than they paid for Why are brown eggs more expensive than white ones, even though the two types taste the same and have identical nutritional value?

The most interesting economics doesn’t happen in a classroom or in arcane formulas but in the real world: at the movie theater, in your car, sometimes on the street. Since the 1980s, economist ROBERT FRANK has been asking his students to pose questions about the oddities they encounter and try to explain them in economic terms. Their questions-and the surprising answersshow how economic principles really operate.

The Economic Naturalist shows how these principles help answer such diverse questions as why female models earn so much more than male models, why retailers might deliberately hammer dents into their own appliances, why the keypad buttons of drive-up cash machines have Braille dots, why child safety seats are required in cars but not in airplanes, and why whales, but not chickens, are in danger of extinction.

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Rectangular Milk Cartons and Cylindrical Soda Cans:

The Economics of Product Design

Free Peanuts and Expensive Batteries:

Supply and Demand in Action

Why Equally Talented Workers Often Earn Different

Salaries and Other Mysteries of the World of Work

Why Some Buyers Pay More Than Others:

The Economics of Discount Pricing

Arms Races and the Tragedy of the Commons

The Myth of Ownership

Decoding Marketplace Signals

The Economic Naturalist Hits the Road

Psychology Meets Economics

The Informal Market for Personal Relationships

Two Originals

Parting Thoughts

Notes

Index