Read the text and state the topic of each paragraph.

Define

a) the introduction;

b) the main body;

c) the conclusion.

Which type does the text belong to

a) opinion writing;

b) problem-solution;

c) for / against argumentation?

Find the linking words in paragraph 5.

Rewrite paragraph 8 by linking the sentences. Use appropriate linking words or phrases.

TEXT 6

IS SANTA A DEADWEIGHT LOSS?

Are all those Christmas gifts just a waste of resources?

1. Economics has long been known as the dismal science. But is any econo­mist so dreary as to criticise Christmas? At first glance, the holiday season in west­ern economies seems a treat for those concerned with such vagaries as gdp growth. After all, everyone is spending; in America, retailers make 25% of their yearly sales and 60% of their profits be­tween Thanksgiving and Christmas. Even so, economists find something to worry about in the nature of the pur­chases being made.

2. Much of the holiday spending is on gifts for others. At the simplest level, giv­ing gifts involves the giver thinking of something that the recipient would like-he tries to guess her preferences, as economists say-and then buying the gift and delivering it. Yet this guessing of pref­erences is no mean feat; indeed, it is often done badly. Every year, ties go unworn and books unread. And even if a gift is en­joyed, it may not be what the recipient would have bought had they spent the money themselves.

3. Intrigued by this mismatch between wants and gifts, in 1993 Joel Waldfogel, then an economist at Yale University, sought to estimate the disparity in dollar terms. In a paper that has proved semi­nal in the literature on the issue, he asked students two questions at the end of a holiday season: first, estimate the total amount paid (by the givers) for all the holiday gifts you received; second, apart from the sentimental value of the items, if you did not have them, how much would you be willing to pay to get them? His re­sults were gloomy: on average, a gift was valued by the recipient well below the price paid by the giver.

4. The most conservative estimate put the average receiver's valuation at 90% of the buying price. The missing 10% is what economists call a deadweight loss: awaste of resources that could be averted without making anyone worse off. In other words, if the giver gave the cash value of the purchase instead of the gift it­self, the recipient could then buy what she really wants, and be better off for no extra cost.

5. Perhaps not surprisingly, the most effi­cient gifts (those with the smallest dead­weight loss) were those from close friends and relations, while non-cash gifts from extended family were the least efficient. As the age difference between giver and recipient grew, so did the inefficiency. All of which suggests what many grandpar­ents know: when buying gifts for some­one with largely unknown preferences, the best present is one that is totally flexi­ble (cash) or very flexible (gift vouchers). If the results are generalised, a waste of one dollar in ten represents a huge ag­gregate loss to society. It suggests that in America, where givers spend $40 billion on Christmas gifts, $4 billion is being lost annually in the process of gift-giving. Add in birthdays, weddings and non-Chris­tian occasions, and the figure would bal­loon. So should economists advocate an end to gift-giving, or at least press for money to become the gift of choice?

Sentimental value

6. There are a number of reasons to think not. First, recipients may not know their own preferences very well. Some of the best gifts, after all, are the unexpected items that you would never have thought of buying, but which turn out to be espe­cially well picked. And preferences can change. So by giving a jazz cd, for exam­ple, the giver may be encouraging the re­cipient to enjoy something that was shunned before. This, and a desire to build skills, is presumably the hope held by the many parents who ignore their children's pleas for video games and buy them books instead.

7. Second, the giver may have access to items—because of travel or an employee discount, for example—that the recipient does not know existed, cannot buy, or can only buy at a higher price. Finally, there are items that a recipient would like to receive but not purchase. If someone else buys them, however, they can be en­joyed guilt-free. This might explain the high volume of chocolate that changes hands over the holidays.

8. But there is a more powerful argument for gift-giving, deliberately ignored by most surveys. Gift-giving, some econo­mists think, is a process that adds value to an item over and above what it would otherwise be worth to the recipient. Intu­ition backs this up, of course. A gift's worth is not only a function of its price, but also of the giver and the circum­stances in which it is given.

9. Hence a wedding ring is more valu­able to its owner than to a jeweller, and the imprint of a child's hand on dried clay is priceless to a loving grandparent. More­over, not only can gift-giving add value for the recipient, but it can be fun for the giver too. It is good, in other words, to give as well as to receive.

10. The lesson, then, for gift-givers? Try hard to guess the preferences of each per­son on your list and then choose a gift that will have a high sentimental value. As economists have studied hard to tell you, it's the thought that counts.

Date: 2016-04-22; view: 633