London: Christmas is a waste of money because people who give presents overestimate how much recipients will enjoy their offerings, economist Joel Waldfogel said.
"The way we celebrate Christmas around the developed world is with an orgy of value destruction that vaporises $25 billion (€16.5bn) per year," he said in a lecture in London.
"People value the items they receive as gifts 20% less per dollar spent than the items they purchase for themselves. These are items that are not well-suited for their tastes."
Waldfogel, an economics professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, is the author of Scroogenomics: Why You Shouldn’t Buy Presents for the Holidays. His findings use surveys of people about presents they received during a season that prompts about $65bn of spending on gifts in the US and a jump in retail sales in Europe and Japan.
a d v e r t i s e m e n t
This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Saturday, December 05, 2009
