Posted by Jay Livingston
This was posted a while ago at Marginal Revolution with the subject line “The Auction Begins.”
Marginal Revolution is an economics blog, but what the picture really illustrates is the limit of purely economic assumptions. Does anyone, even a classical economist, really believe that someone who found the iPod Touch would call the $51 number? Does anyone, even a classical economist, really believe that this is the start of an auction and that the author of the original sign will raise her offer?
Some of the comments at MR speculated on the marginal effects of offering different rewards. Elsewhere, the few comments that thought the $51 was serious found it revolting. Most people took the sign as a joke, though they did not specfically mention that it was poking fun at economics.
My thinking ran much more to wondering what characteristics of the rightful owner and of the finder would affect whether the finder returned the iPod Touch, and if so, whether he or she initially refused the reward.
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