Incentives Unlock the Mysteries of Human Behavior

• Why is Disney World cleaner than Yellowstone National Park? 

• Why are there so many chickens and so few pheasants?

• Why is buying “real” Christmas trees (rather than artificial trees) better for the preservation of trees and forests? 

• Why did the requirement that young children have their own seat (and seatbelt) rather than sitting on parents’ laps in airplanes cause an increase in childhood deaths?

• Why does requiring that new cars be manufactured with pollution control technology installed result in increased automobile-generated air pollution? 

• Why do programs providing government insurance for bank deposits increase the likelihood of bank failure?

• Why do farmers plant high-water-use crops in areas where water is in short supply – rice in the desert climate of southern California, for example? 

• Why do so many patriotic Americans not vote in Presidential elections?

• Why is a legislated increase in minimum wage bad news for poor, low-skilled teenagers?


• Why did the English colonies of North America prosper while the colonies of Spain remained poor despite great discoveries of gold and silver?