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DIAMOND-WATER PARADOX: The perplexing observation that water, which is more useful than diamonds, has a lower price. If price is related to utility, how can this occur? This paradox was first proposed by classical economists in the 19th century and was subsequently used as a stepping stone for developing the notion of marginal utility and the role it plays in the demand price of a good. The paradox is magically cleared up with an understanding of marginal utility and total utility. People are willing to pay a higher price for goods with greater marginal utility. As such, water which is plentiful has enormous total utility, but a low price because of a low marginal utility. Diamonds, however, have less total utility because they are less plentiful, but a high price because of a high marginal utility.
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MARKET FOR LEMONS A market adversely selects only lower quality products for exchange. The market for lemons is an illustration of adverse selection that results from asymmetric information. In this market, because buyers have limited information they offer an average price based on the average quality of the goods. Sellers, however, with better information select to sell lower quality products but not higher quality ones. Two methods of address this problem are signalling and screening. Two related information problems are moral hazard and the principal-agent problem.
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RED AGGRESSERINE
[What's This?]
Today, you are likely to spend a great deal of time searching the newspaper want ads trying to buy either a remote controlled sports car with an air spoiler or semi-gloss photo paper that works with your neighbor's printer. Be on the lookout for slow moving vehicles with darkened windows.
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This isn't me! What am I?
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A thousand years before metal coins were developed, clay tablet "checks" were used as money by the Babylonians.
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"If I have ever made any valuable discoveries, it has been owing more to patient attention than to any other talent. " -- Isaac Newton, mathematician, physicist
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AER
American Economic Review
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