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Home » Random Draws

Markets work

21 February 2007 3 Comments

You know what the secret of a great economy is? Markets. Why? Because voluntary trade is beneficial and welfare improving. As if you really needed to be convinced of that, here is an item that my friend Saheli from Berkeley alerted me to: free lodging in exchange for breast milk.

Markets rule. And not just in Berkeley. Everywhere.

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3 Comments »

  • raghu ram prasad said:

    very nice blog you have presented, visit me soon

    # 21 February 2007 at 9:15 pm
  • shiv said:

    Kinky, though the ad denies it. The guy who did the research is even kinkier…

    # 22 February 2007 at 2:05 pm
  • Aditya Athalye said:

    babies are traditionally weaned away from mother’s milk… assuming this is a prudent practice (many traditional practices are) i’ll be surprised if a.o. wilson would be believed widely… but that is another matter.

    i think the market will only discover the prudence (real benefit and welfare) of drinking human breast milk over time… again, assuming a large enough number of such transactions happen to support a.o. wilson’s claim.

    i think the appearance of human breast milk demand only highlights that initiating voluntary trade is easy in a market with small information asymmetry… and if the demand is met, then it will prove that it is possible to match buyers and sellers for otherwise highly improbable transactions.

    benefit and welfare improvement will be apparent only over time.

    # 23 February 2007 at 1:24 pm