Prominent economists (some Nobel laureates, as we shall see) have done extremely serious research using complex mathematical and econometric models to answer trivial, if not nonsensical, questions.

When a husband and wife share the same toilet, is it better to leave the lid up or down?

The author, Jay Pil Choi of Michigan State University, published his study in January 2011. You can read the article here.

He came to the conclusion that it is ineffective for men to leave the toilet lid down.

This article develops an economic analysis of toilet etiquette. I am investigating whether there is any justification for assuming that men should leave the toilet seat after using it. I find it inefficient unless there is a large asymmetry in the unpleasant costs of changing the position of the toilet seat between the sexes,” the author writes.

The study was published in the Journal of Economic Inquiry.

N. Red: I would strongly advise against following his advice. Home peace is much more important.

The Theory of Interstellar Trade – Paul Krugman

Krugman imagines trade between Earthlings and the inhabitants of the planet Trantor, assuming that the spaceship carrying the goods travels at the speed of light. Since the price of the destination also depends on the delivery time, the Nobel laureate wonders which time will be taken into account: the time of the Earth observer or the time of the spacecraft (the two reference systems are very different according to Einstein’s theory).

Krugman (Princeton University) published his article in 1978 in the Journal of Economic Inquiry. His research can be read here.

The best plans to follow when resources are scarce

When Seinfeld’s Elaine was about to meet her husband, she discovered she was out of contraceptive sponges (Season 7, Episode 9). She searched convulsively in pharmacies, but they were gone. So, left with a small supply of sponges, Elaine must rethink her entire seduction strategy.

Every time she meets a new guy, which happens often, she asks herself if he is “worthy of being a sponge”? “I couldn’t decide if he was really worthy of a sponge.” , – she says to Jerry.

Starting with this, Princeton University researcher Avinash Dixit published a 2011 study on this topic: limited resources and their conservation. Research in: Journal of Economic Inquiry (https://www.princeton.edu/~dixitak/home/Elaine-Final-Web.pdf)

Correlation between the average size of the male genital organ and the economic growth of the country in which he lives

The study examines the relationship between economic development and average male organ length based on data from 1960 to 1985. According to the author, economic growth between 1960 and 1985 is negatively related to the average size of the male genital organ.

“With appropriate caveats, it is also recognized as a more important driver of GDP growth than the type of political regime in a country. Although all the evidence is compelling, our hypothesis is based on surprisingly strong correlations,” says the researcher.

Author: Westling, Tatu (2011): The Male Organ and Economic Growth: Does Size Matter?

We leave you the pleasure of reading the research.

Egg or chicken?

The question, since when is the world. But the answer comes from numbers and data. Very briefly, in the beginning there was an EGG. People have been studying egg production in the US for nearly 50 years (1893-1930).

So the Egg goes first, right?

The document can be read here.

Do you know what’s on your plate?

The researchers wanted to test whether humans could distinguish the taste of dog food from human food. So they made two identical molds – one with spots for dogs and one for humans. And they checked it.

A researcher (John Bohannon et al., Harvard University, 2009) found that the normal person is caught when the pate consumed is something other than what he knew it should be.

But when the data is tested on time series and on a large number of volunteers, the problem looks different…

Read here.

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