Centives has previously covered queuing theory – the analysis of how humans react to being in queues. Alex Stone showed that the real problem with queues is that we hate being idle:

• When Houston airport moved the baggage carousel further away from where the passengers disembarked from their aircraft, the number of complaints about the delays in getting baggage fell to zero – even though the average wait time hadn’t changed. Passengers didn’t mind walking a long way to get their bags. They minded waiting around.
• In general people overestimate how much time they’ve spent in a queue by 36%.
• To mitigate the effects of creeping boredom, elevator banks in skyscrapers have mirrors so that individuals have something to do while they wait for the lift.
• Impulse buys in supermarkets happen because picking the items up gives us something to do while we wait in line.

Read more about how human psychology can be manipulated to reduce the amount of dissatisfaction that people have, and the role that social justice plays over here.

Source: The New York Times

Since 2009 America’s prison population has been declining. This raises a new question for the country that imprisons the most people in the world: What to do with all the unused prisons? Emily Badger wrote:

• The easiest thing to convert prisons into is self-storage units. But there is only so much demand for those.
• Historic prisons, in urban areas with sophisticated architecture are being preserved as historical sites. One such prison is being revamped into an arts center.
• Other ideas include turning them into server farms, technology startup space, DNA laboratories, and museum collections.

Read more about America’s prisons, why the prison population is declining, and the former-jail-now-hotel with the tasteless restaurant name over here.

Source: The Atlantic

Bruce Schreiner took a look at the economics of Taco Bell:

• Taco Bell was struggling…until the Doritos Locos Taco – with a shell made entirely of Nacho Cheese Doritos – made its debut.
• Since then growth has substantially increased. The product is so successful that the chain is expecting to release a “Cool Ranch” version of the Doritos taco shell soon.
• Taco Bell brings in 60% of the profits for YUM – a company that also owns Pizza Hut and KFC.
• The faux-Mexican chain is also trying to get into the breakfast market by selling breakfast burritos.
• A Cantina Bell line of food designed by a celebrity chef is expected to help the company break into the upscale food market.

Read more about Taco Bell’s international performance, how much it’s expected to grow this year, and why the future looks bright for YUM over here.

Source: The Huffington Post

We need to examine our expectations about marriage proposals writes Amanda Marcotte:

• In a study two thirds of all college aged adults indicated that they would prefer to have the male propose to the female.
• Not one man stated that they’d ‘kind of’ want the woman to propose (and only 2.8% of women did) while no participant across both genders “definitely” wanted the woman to propose.
• This is likely because our ideas about marriage come from TV shows and the experiences of our parents. Some even think it’s romantic to ask a female’s father for the girl’s hand in marriage.
• This has real consequences for women. It means that their only real role in the proposal process is to say “yes” or “no” – and the chips are often stacked against them when proposals are done in a public venue where a “no” might disappoint the gathered audience.

Read more about the steps we need to take to change this, the stereotypes about men and women that has led to this situation, and more details about the study over here.

Source: Slate

Long term technological trends are about to put another group of American workers out of business: The Dolphins. Michael Blausten wrote:

• 14 of the 19 American navy ships damaged since 1950 have been damaged by mines.
• The Navy keeps 18 dolphins at hand to search for mines in the ocean. Their sonar, eyesight, and intelligence make them the ideal mine detectors.
• However the Navy has now developed an unmanned underwater robot that can work longer hours, is easier to train, and doesn’t need to be paid the herring and sardines that the dolphins demand.
• The current generation of worker dolphins aren’t lining up in front of the welfare office yet. The Navy is finding jobs for them searching for mines buried underneath the sea floor – which drones can’t detect – or as entertainers. The fate of the next generation is as yet, unclear.

Read more about the dolphin retirement package, and other uses the dolphins can be put to over here.

Source: New York Post

Via: Marginal Revolution

Remittances – the sending of money from workers in developed countries back to their homes in developing countries – are a more powerful force than foreign aid because of the sums involved and deserve more attention writes Peter Passell:

• Remittances can mean a lot to developing countries. Lesotho, for example, relies on remittances for 29% of its GDP. Tajikstan, Moldova, and the Kyrgyz Republic rely on it almost as much.
• These flows can be volatile. An economic crisis or the crash of oil prices in oil dependent economies – such as Russia – can hurt the remittances sent to other countries.
• China’s success is in part due to the remittance of capital – which helped to start businesses – and also experience necessary for advancement.
• India, on the other hand, unlike China, has a well developed financial market which means that overseas workers may be choosing to invest in the stocks and bonds of large companies, rather than use their valuable cash to help India develop.
• Governments are looking to capitalize on the wealth of migrants by offering “diaspora bonds”. Buyers know that the risk of default is high, but the government is hoping that their patriotism will overwhelm that.
• The world could spur development by reducing the substantial fees that are charged for remittances – often up to 30% of the remittance itself.

Read more about The World Bank’s efforts, China’s savings, Latin America’s spending, and some hard numbers about remittances over here.

Source: Foreign Policy

China has been gripped by a controversial sex scandal. Christina Larson argued that these scandals might be key to reducing corruption in China:

• Throughout China’s history, mistresses appear to be a fairly common phenomenon.
• These days however, top officials in the ruling communist party seem to have more than normal. This is because businesses and other interests can use them to bribe officials into giving them favourable treatment.
• This has led to the rise of citizen-journalists attempting to identify and publicize the names of officials that keep mistresses.
• By taking such a close look at the lives of its politicians, China might be able to solve the problem of rampant corruption “one [sex] tape at a time.”

Read more about some of the other scandals that have ended the careers of corrupt Chinese politicians over the past decade, and how the communist party responds to such infractions, over here.

Source: Foreign Policy

We’ve all wondered it at one point in our lives. How tall could our Lego tower become? Ruth Alexander answered:

• Materials testing shows that Lego bricks can take more than 400kg of weight before they collapse.
• This means that a single Lego brick at the bottom of a tower could withstand the weight of 375,000 Lego bricks on top of it.
• This would mean that the tallest tower theoretically possible is 3.5 km – taller than most European mountains.

Read more about the feasibility of building such a tower, a behind the scenes look at the Lego stress test – and its aftermath – as well as the current world record holder for tallest Lego tower over here.

Source: BBC

Centives has previously covered a thought-experiment about what would happen if countries were to ban advertizing. Now Brad Plumer looked at a study that put some concrete numbers behind the analysis of the relative merits of advertizing:

• Up until 2000 Austria’s eight regions taxed advertizements at different rates. Then in 2000 the central government harmonized tax rates which meant that the tax on advertizing went up in some areas and down in others.
• The first observed effect was a large change in the amount of advertizing in the individual regions. This demonstrates that advertizements are tax-sensitive.
• In some product areas prices went up as the amount of advertizing increased. This suggests that advertizements persuade people to buy products that they don’t necessarily need.
• Overall though prices went down as the amount of advertizing increased. The fall was steepest in food and education products.
• This suggests that on the whole advertizing informs consumers and helps them to make more well-informed decisions about the products they buy.
• This also means that a tax on advertizements ultimately causes prices to rise, as it depresses the amount of advertizing that takes place.

Read more of the numbers behind the study, some important caveats, why this study matters, and why advertizing is a rare case for economists over here.

Source: The Washington Post