New jobs for economists

Michael Schwartz [my link] earned an economics doctorate from Stanford Univeristy before spending five years as an assistant profesor of microeconomics at Harvard University.  His research papers include "Synchronization under Uncertainty."

These days, Mr. Schwartz is thinking about how to use economics to save attractive women from unwanted solicitations on an Internet dating site [TC: he needs to confer with Miss Passey].  One idea employs the concept of "scarcity," rationing the number of messages each lothario can send.  Another uses full disclosure, by displaying how many people a suitor has already approached.

…A person familiar with the matter says Yahoo aims to build a team of more than a dozen economists.

…Mr. Schwartz…[is] currently writing a research paper about economic markets where one side of a potential transaction is eager to profess its preference for the other side, as is often the case with hiring and online dating.  The unequal relationship make such markets complicated and unpredictable.

That is from today’s Wall Street Journal, p.1, "Hoping to Overtake its Rivals, Yahoo Stocks Up on the Academics."