Economists Do It Freakily
By putting out a broad-strokes layman’s version of his work, co-authored with a non-economist, Steve Levitt has subjected himself to being criticized on esoteric points he’s already addressed. But, as anyone who read the book would guess, yes, Levitt’s crime class was more fun than we usually associate with U of C. Though Levitt’s got the (much deserved) national spotlight, his wasn’t my favorite micro-econ elective.
That honor goes to Jim Leitzel’s courses, which were similar to Levitt’s but with more dialogue (due to being conducted in classrooms rather than a lecture hall) and being more abstract (pretty much no metrics at all, Pub Pol dept not Econ). In Leitzel’s courses we had long discussions trying to get to a rational explanation of a snooze feature. We derived consumption equations for smoking, drug use and crime. We talked about lint traps in a community washer/dryer. We talked about risk management of time waiting in supermarket checkout lines.
The Leitzel story I’ve always used as an example when people ask why I enjoy microeconomics, and how it can apply to real life goes something like this. Jim Leitzel used to play pickup basketball and soccer on weekends in high school. Every Saturday morning at 10:00 guys would show up at the park, knowing that other players would also be looking for a game. Every Sunday morning, also at 10:00, same thing. Jim goes away to college in another city, but comes home for a summer vacation a few years later. On his first weekend back after being away, Leitzel showed up at 10:00 on Saturday to find that the game had started at 9:30 and that he would have to sit around to wait for the next game. Not wanting to make the same mistake on Sunday, he showed up early and found himself waiting until 10:30 for enough people to show up to begin the soccer game. Why?
In pick-up basketball, you can begin play with as little as two players, and add players to a maximum of ten. If you are the eleventh person to show up at the court, you have to wait until the next game. In pick-up soccer, you need at least eight people just to start, and you can continue adding players up to a couple dozen. So, there is an incentive to be of the first to arrive to the basketball game, and a disincentive to be of the first to arrive to the soccer game.
Bam!
