Christmas special part 1: The Economics of Christmas

This is the first part of our two-part Christmas special. Given the time of year, this is a lighter take on economics. In this episode, I am joined by Shane Doherty to have a chat about the economics of Christmas. Shane is not an economist but an enquiring mind when it comes to economics so a good guy to ask the tough questions surrounding Christmas.

We challenge the conventional wisdom that Christmas is important for the economy - it is, given our current spending pattern - but would we spend as much if we didn't have Christmas? We discuss this and some of the pros and cons associated with the bump in spending during the festive season.

We discuss the economics of giving presents and use some economic rationale to advise on a welfare-maximising gift-giving strategy. We even take a quick detour to discuss the economics of weddings!

I hope you enjoy listening. Tag us @IrishEconPod on twitter, facebook or instagram if you get a chance and leave a review on iTunes.

I hope you all have a very Happy Christmas!

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