Essay - Sex, Drugs, and Economics Book Review: Linda, Coyle. Sex, Drugs...

Sex, Drugs, and Economics

Book Review:

Linda, Coyle. Sex, *****, and *****. Texere Publishing, 2002.

***** economists' frequent use of graphs and figures in justify*****g their theories ***** predictions, economics has never been either an exact or an abstract science. Economics attempts to describe patterns ***** hum***** behavior and human choices that often seem unpredictable and irrational, unless these choices are closely examined in ***** specific context. L*****da *****'s book Sex, Drugs, and Economics uses examples as far-reaching as the sex industry, illegal drugs, and sports, as well as o*****r unlikely sources such as the ***** of modern teenagers and popular music, to illustrate such b*****ic economic concepts as supply and demand. Coyle suggests *****, as economics ***** to explain human behavior and buying patterns virtually every sphere of human life can be drawn from when one wishes to ***** basic economic *****. ***** also is helpful to make apparently inexplicable aspects of human life clearer, such as why persons engage in r*****ky activities more ***** teens than dur*****g other periods of their life, or why people chose to take illegal drugs.

Colvin begins her ***** with perhaps the most unpredictable and irrational aspect of ***** ***** of all—sex. She asks, from a supply-side point of view, ***** do sex workers ask such high prices for their trade ***** eschew bargain prices? Theoretically, competition should keep wages low. But, like "competitive athletes and bond salesmen," sex workers know their careers are likely to be short-lived. (4) Thus, all wage costs in the ***** industry, tend to ***** quite high, making ***** fairly inelastic. Also, ***** supply of labor is inelastic, as not all ***** are willing ***** make themselves available ***** hire in the sex industry for moral reasons, or are able to 'sell themselves' for aesthetic or *****-related reasons. Furthermore, the high entry barriers to ***** industry, in the form of the criminal element a seller must deal with ***** enter the market, creates high ***** barriers that ***** prices sticky, or unresponsive to demand. High levels ***** market segmentation, and little product differentiation in the eyes of consumers also al***** purveyors to change high prices, as a consumer seek*****g one source or type of ple*****ure will be reluctant ***** seek other f*****ms of pleasure or see the two as similar enough to function as substitute goods. (4) The fact that cus*****mers are mainly men limits the ***** *****, too, to sellers, causing sellers ***** keep prices *****. However, the Internet h***** reduced barriers to entry into the industry. The overhead of maintaining a shop, even of hiring models to pose for pictures now ***** computer graphics ***** substitute, has ***** costs. The ***** has *****so increased dem***** as it ***** *****n away much of the embarrass*****t of 'real life' purchasing. Thus, technological change can fundamentally change both the ***** and demand sides of ***** equation of any industry.

Colvin analyzes the drug ***** to examine the ways in which the *****dustry functions much like a legitimate market. For