You know, as an economist and especially one who is researching and thinking about serious public policy constantly, to be interviewed by the BBC World Service and access its 40 million odd sophisticated listeners would seem like a triumph to get my ideas out there.
Last night that interview took place but instead of 40 million hearing about innovation or financial reform or something like that, they heard about toilet training. Click here to listen (it is about 2/3 of the way through). And, yes, it's my own fault!
Last night that interview took place but instead of 40 million hearing about innovation or financial reform or something like that, they heard about toilet training. Click here to listen (it is about 2/3 of the way through). And, yes, it's my own fault!
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2 comments:
I enjoyed your comments about how tricky it is to get your incentives right-- having just toilet trained my own daughter. I'm sure there are many clever analogies to be drawn, between chocolate frogs and medical reimbursements, or between toilet usage and regulating carbon emissions.
(Incidentally, I've been thinking lately that the availability of the news free via the internet is a classic prisoner's dillemma-- that is, it would be better for all of the news organizations if they could all agree to charge for their content, but since they can't agree to such a cabal, it is in each of their best interest to undercut each other by providing content free. Maybe a game theorist can save the newspaper.)
This is quite funny. I liked the interview very much, and might try to look for the book, as I am also in the process of training my daughter to do with less diapers.
However, I couldn't help thinking about the literature on extrinsic and intrinsic motivation (I'm a fan of self-determination theory). Relying on external rewards too much does seem to present some important risks when raising a child.
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