1、English News Reading Book Review,Robert H. Franks economic guidebook unlocks everyday enigmas By Alice Rawsthorn , July 8, 2007,The Economic Naturalist In Search of Explanations for Everyday Enigmas By Robert H. Frank,Professor Robert H. Frank is a Professor of Management and a Professor of Economic

2、s at Cornell Universitys. He is a monthly contributor to the Economic Scene column in The New York Times.,Economic Naturalist:,Why are whales, but not chickens, in danger of extinction? Why are child safety seats required in cars but not in airplanes? Why do 24-hour convenience stores have locks on

3、their doors?,Economic Naturalist:,The Cost-Benefit Approach to Decisions:,Example questionsin the book:,Education,Why many schools require school uniforms? Why most states enforce mandatory kindergarten start dates? Why humanities professors often write so unclearly?,Automotive,Why the proportion of

4、 luxury cars on the road is higher in Singapore than in the U.S? Why pedestrians are fined for jaywalking in Rome but not in New York? Why fuel filler doors arent always on the same side of the car? Why an accident in the southbound lanes of a divided highway causes a traffic jam in the northbound l

5、anes?,Environmental,Why pollution is a more serious problem in the Mediterranean than in the Great Salt Lake?,Sports,Why American men do so badly in soccer, and why American women do so much better? Why rookies of the year often have a mediocre second season?,Women and Fashion,Why female models earn

6、 so much more than male models? Why super-thin models were banned in Madrid? Why women endure the injury and discomfort of high heels? Why Victorias Secret offers multi-million-dollar bejeweled bras that no one buys? Why predominantly male legislators outlaw polygamy?,Bridal,Why brides buy and groom

7、s rent? Why people are marrying later? Why rural couples marry earlier? Why Japanese couples spend twice as much on their weddings as American couples?,New York,Why New Yorkers tend to be impatient? Why New York taxis are yellow?,Business/Finance,Why airlines charge a premium for last-minute tickets

8、 while Broadway theaters sell them at a discount? Why round-trip fares between Kansas City and Orlando are lower if you start in Orlando? Why Disney World doesnt charge extra for rides with perennial waiting lines?,Music,Why CDs use the same format worldwide and DVDs use different formats in differe

9、nt countries? Why CDs and DVDs come in different size cases, even though the discs are exactly the same size?,Excerpts of the Book,Why does milk come in rectangular containers, while soft drinks come in round cans?,Why does milk come in rectangular containers, while soft drinks come in round cans?,O

10、ne possibility is that because soft drinks are often consumed directly from the container, the extra cost of storing cylindrical containers is justified because they fit more comfortably in the hand But even if most people drank milk straight from the carton, the cost-benefit principle suggests that

11、 it would be unlikely to be sold in cylindrical containers Most soft drinks in supermarkets are stored in open shelves, which are cheap to buy and have no operating costs. Milk is exclusively stored in refrigerated cabinets, which are both expensive to purchase and costly to operate.,Why do fast foo

12、d places promise a free meal if you arent given a receipt at the time of purchase?,By offering a complimentary meal to anyone who fails to receive a receipt, owners provide an economic incentive for customers to monitor cashiers for free.,Why do female models earn so much more than male models?,To a

13、nswer this question, we must first ask what fashion models accomplish for the clothing producers who hire them. Simply put, their job is to make the manufacturers apparel look as good as possible to prospective buyers Female models receive premium pay because womens fashion is a vastly bigger busine

14、ss than mens fashion.,Robert H. Franks economic guidebook unlocks everyday enigmas By Alice Rawsthorn , July 8, 2007,LONDON: Have you ever wondered why some cars have fuel fillers on the left, and others on the right? Why your VCR is stuffed with functions that youll never use? Why women button thei

15、r clothes from the left, and men from the right? We encounter puzzles like these every day. Theyre not life-threatening or planet-imperiling, but they make sense, anyway. The American economist, Robert H. Frank, has devoted a book, The Economic Naturalist, to unraveling them. His explanations for wh

16、at he calls everyday enigmas are rooted in economic theory.,The issues explored in the book were suggested by the students on the introductory economics course Frank teaches at Cornell University. He asked them to find economic explanations for things that flummoxed them in daily life. Frank then de

17、vised his own answers to the most interesting questions. His objective was to show that, beneath the jargon and mathematical formalism, economics is grounded in common sense.,Some of the questions and answers in The Economic Naturalist are purely economic. Why are brown eggs more expensive than whit

18、e ones? Because the hens that lay them are bigger and tend to eat more. The grist of Franks argument is that most business decisions are determined by the cost-benefit principle, whereby you only do something if the benefit gained is greater than the cost incurred.,A simple example is the over-compl

19、icated VCR. Why do manufacturers load them up with so many functions - most of which we seldom, if ever, use - that recording a television program is extremely difficult? The answer is that it is cheaper to add each function to a VCR than to edit models for different customers. Frank could have made

20、 an identical case against the over-complicated cellphone. The same argument explains why Braille keypads are fitted on drive-by cash machines, even though the people who use them are unlikely to be able to see clearly enough to drive. Again the cost-benefit principle means that manufacturers cant j

21、ustify the additional cost of producing one set of machines with Braille keypads, and another set without them.,Other anomalies are historic. Take the positioning of buttons on clothes. Why are they on the right for men, and the left for women, especially since, for the 90 percent of the population

22、who are right-handed, its much easier to do up buttons from the right? Its because when buttons were introduced in the 17th century, they were affordable only by the wealthy. As rich men then dressed themselves, they did so from the right; whereas wealthy women were dressed by servants, who preferre

23、d to button them up from the left. The custom continues today, even though fewer women are dressed by servants, because there has been no incentive for the fashion industry to change it.,Other apparent inconsistencies are equally pragmatic. Think of money. Why do portraits appear in profile on coins and full face on not