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Love & Economics!




In this industrial age finding anything true & natural is like finding a star in any of the urban skies. Humans have a tendency to mess up with natural things. One of the significant things that they have messed up is love. Contamination of love began mostly since the advent of industrialization in sync with air pollution. 
Ancient Greek philosophers identified five forms of love: essentially, familial love, friendly love or platonic love, romantic love, guest love, and divine love. Modern authors have distinguished further varieties of love: unrequited love, infatuated love, self-love, and courtly love. But for the topic of discussion, these classifications may not suffice. This love is limited to the horizon of humans and quintessentially love is spread over all living beings and almost all species have shown akin course of action when it comes to love. The important question here is whether there is any relation between economics and love. What special is to be human, economist views that humans basically have the ability to calculate. A man is a calculating species who is always weighing and benefits from every course of action. As humans evolved so did their ability to calculate and hence their love also pitched away from its natural form.
Love also increases the likelihood of more production of common family goods, thereby further increasing the benefits of marriage. Since issues such as the gender pay gap are analyzed through economic considerations, but also include relationships such as love, and as economic methods are increasingly being used to address a wide range of issues, including family life, it is important to understand these relationships. Most people think marriage is love, but economist Gary Becker has shown that people calculate the costs and benefits of different types of relationships when choosing a partner. The amount of love you get from investing in love correlates, albeit only approximately, with the amount of yourself you invest in a relationship.   
We need to economize on love because we live in a world of scarcity and cannot afford to waste too much time on useless activities like love. According to economist Dennis Robertson, the job of economics is "to save money on love, this scarce resource." Now, you might think that love is an area reserved for philosophers, psychologists, and biologists.

If you think of economics as focused on human choice, it won't be a big leap to understand its relevance to other areas of life that are not usually thought of from an economic point of view, such as dating and marriage. This does not mean that economics is the only thing that matters, it just applies the laws of human action. 

Their human image is Homo economicus, the "economic man," a calculating machine that always weighs the costs and benefits of each action. A disturbing thought is that once people are educated in economics, they start to act the way economists say. 

As a young female economist who uses online dating apps in the most famous dating place in New York, I have been working hard to apply cheap thinking to help explain the various patterns I have observed in the online dating world. For a long time, economists did not think that love was part of their research but ignored it completely, even though they used economic perspectives to explore other esoteric topics such as crime and fertility. In the 1970s, Nobel laureate in economics Gary Becker put forward a framework for analyzing love and marriage for the first time in a series of research papers, and this kind of abandonment of love ended. 

Aside from the obvious financial problems, many people simply don't understand what economics has to do with dating and marriage. I recently attended a lecture on romantic relationships, and some of the audience were thrilled when the speaker applied economics to his analysis.

The marriage market exists in the sense that men and women compete to find a partner; everyone is trying to find the best companion depending on the market conditions. 

Many other economists fell in love with Becker, who followed in his footsteps. But, as you can see, a dozen years of economic preparation did not turn the economy of your friendly neighborhood into a "rational" love seeker. Look, he's never been so happy before - and that's better than it would be if he tackled mental issues like optimization or game theory problems. You should think about how many good times you have ahead of you, and if you might have better times elsewhere. If you can show them that you are perfectly happy without them, you will soon be successful. 

Taken together, we address key social, economic, and philosophical issues here, with a focus on links to public policy. For this reason, the family remains one of the most powerful institutions for organizing not only the family but also our economic life. 

While love is traditionally considered a domain for philosophers, psychologists, and biologists, economists have also delved into the study of love and its implications.

The concept of Homo economicus, the economic man, views humans as rational beings who calculate the costs and benefits of their actions. Economists, such as Gary Becker, have applied economic frameworks to analyze love and marriage, considering factors like the calculation of costs and benefits when choosing a partner. This perspective emphasizes that love and relationships can be influenced by economic considerations, even if they are not the sole determining factors.

Understanding the economic aspects of love and relationships can provide insights into societal issues like the gender pay gap, family dynamics, and public policy. Economics is not the only determinant of love, but it offers a lens through which to analyze human behavior and choices.

While some may initially question the relevance of economics to the realm of love, it highlights the increasing recognition and acceptance of economic analysis in fields like dating and marriage. By applying economic thinking to analyze patterns in online dating and exploring the dynamics of the marriage market, economists have expanded their research to encompass these aspects of human relationships.

In the end, it is suggested that examining the economic dimensions of love and relationships can contribute to a broader understanding of societal dynamics. The family, as a powerful institution, plays a crucial role in both the family unit and the larger economic context. By considering the connections between economics, love, and public policy, we gain valuable insights into key social, economic, and philosophical issues.

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