I had the following conversation with a friend who wishes to remain anonymous (it wasn't Tyler).
A: Heh, how's it going?
Anon: Oh, so, so. I had a paper rejected today.
A: Ah, sorry, I get depressed when that happens.
Anon: Well in my case it's not all bad. My wife and I have an understanding that whenever I have a paper rejected we have sex.
A: What! That's a terrible system for getting papers published. What kind of economist are you?! Don't you understand incentives!
Anon: What kind of economist am I? What kind of economist are you?! You have failed to understand what I am maximizing!
I bowed down before the greater wisdom of my friend.
Submit!
Truth.
From an older C&W song, the most important things in life (not sure this is the correct order):
Younger women
Older whiskey
Faster horses (cars/motorcycles)
More money
Been married 32 years. This would be extra incentive to get papers published!
Stick to your day job.
My question is: what is the wife maximizing?
Perhaps she thinks her husband revises too much.
If incentives have to be understood, they’re not incentives.
I chose a slightly different incentive structure, and married someone who’s willing to have sex with me just because we enjoy it.
brings a new perspective to dan pink’s candle problem
So much for the evolutionary-psychology notion that women aren’t interested in sex with losers!
And, seriously, is there anything more pathetic on the planet than a man who believes the only reason women have sex is to make their partners feel better? Corollary: Is there anything more pathetic than a man who deliberately self-sabotages in hopes of “earning” sex?
I’m not sure who’s more utterly, excruciatingly lame: the friend for employing the strategy, let alone sharing it, or Tabarrok for admiring it! (Let alone sharing it.)
Great sweet mother of pearl!
@Chris D: Good answer.
figleaf
de gustibus non disputandum…
Figleaf,
Damn, you extended the Poison Ivy branch with that comment. I must admit though, I was also pretty repulsed by the OP and think some man point deductions are in order.
@figleaf and Chris
Why do you assume that they ONLY have sex when he gets rejected? The post never said that!
Unless he is the Richatd pPosner o Cass Sunstein of rejected papers , he has a lousy sex life
Steko wins the thread, and I imagine that “friend”‘s wife’s consumer surplus is quite high in this case
@figleaf, Ryan Vann, etc.
IT’S A FUCKING JOKE!
Jesus Holy H Christ what the fuck is wrong with you people? Get a fucking therapist!
Jeepers.
Send that man a link to Roissy in DC.
Nice Post. It’s really a very good article. I noticed all your important points. Thanks!
The author sounds interesting. The book rather less so? I wonder why the English are buying it. Do you think sales of this book might have something to do with England’s worry about hyperinflation and riots? Anyway this will be a fascinating time to live in Germany for a while. I heard an editor of a big German newspaper speaking about the Greeks and he sounded like an editor of the Daily Mail or Sun during the Falklands war…
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