The Economics Of Innocence
Tyler Cowen looks at the Kobe case from an economics perspective:
"Should economists think that Kobe Bryant is innocent? Don't we teach our students, first and foremost, that incentives matter? Didn't Kobe have huge and obvious incentives not to do it? Wouldn't an attention-seeker victim have some incentive to lie and stretch the story? Even if, heaven forbid, a guy had rape as his goal, rather than sex, wouldn't an economic model predict he would pick a different state and county? Yet I have asked a few economists, market-oriented economists, the kind who believe in the power of incentives, and they all think Kobe is guilty as charged (admittedly my sample is not huge)."
Something's wrong with the perma-link to this specific piece. To read Cowen's entire post, go to Volokh.com, Sunday, August 10, third entry down.
as no one else has commented on this, I will.
It's true that it wouldn't make sense for Kobe to rape a girl, seeing as how someone can be awarded millions of dollars just for spilling hot coffee in their laps in this day and age, you'd think he would have been smarter than to go and have non-consensual sex with someone. Actually, though, if you go by the further logic that as he is a hot commodity with a large bankroll, he'd be stupid to even have consensual sex with someone. It seems sort of like a double-edged sword to me that a guy can't even go out and get laid if he wants to any more. This will probably be settled out of court and we'll never really know the outcome, and I hate thinking that this girl is just a ho who's trying to get money out of Kobe because there is the possibility, however small, that it was rape, but it seems very suspicious to me. As Amy has said many times before: What was she doing up there in the first place? Getting her ass autographed?
There's a case running around here in Orange County about a woman who was allegedly sent to a motel 6 by a sheriff's deputy and drugged and raped. If I find a link, I'll share it, but...allegedly, the deputy told her to go to a motel 6 and check into a specific room when she called him for directions on how to get to the jail. Why did she go? What was she thinking? There is definitely more to that case than meets the eye, and I feel that way about the Bryant case.
Dang, but I'm wordy right now!
Clarkified at August 12, 2003 9:22 AM
I read Tyler Cowen's post on incentives in the sexual market, and found my mind wandering again and again toward an appreciation of Kobe's skill on the court. I find it hard to believe that a 24-year-old stud's "irrational behavior would lead to a downward sloping demand curve" -- especially in the presence of a "thick market." And we can only hope that a stud like him will "stupidly commit more crimes when the penalties get stiffer."
Penalize me, Kobe.
Lena Cuisina at August 12, 2003 5:52 PM