Dollars and Sex Book Summary - Dollars and Sex Book explained in key points

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Dollars and Sex summary

Name: Dollars and Sex
Rating: 4.1 (57 reviews)
Author: Marina Adshade

Marina Adshade

How Economics Influences Sex and Love

4.1 (57 ratings)

17 mins

Topics

Sex Love

Table of Contents

Dollars and Sex
Summary of 7 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 7

What’s in it for me? Discover the economy of love and sex.

Imagine if, one morning, your partner turned to you and said, “I’m with you because I’m not attractive enough to be with the people I’d rather be with; you’re simply the best partner I can get right now.” If such a declaration didn’t leave you speechless, you’d probably get a little angry. This analysis seems awfully cold and unromantic – an utterance more appropriate to lab workers than to lovers.

Most of us want to believe that the laws of love transcend the harsh logic of supply and demand. But, as you’ll learn from these blinks, many of our “romantic” choices aren’t all that different from our buying decisions. If you can briefly ignore the protestations of the heart, you’ll be amazed at how economic factors influence our decisions about love and life partnership.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

what’s wrong with many online dating sites;
how income inequality can lead to divorces; and
why there are fewer virgins in colleges with fewer male students.

In many societies, liberal views on female sexuality have led to more freedom.

If you were to compare your views on sexuality to those of your grandparents, there’s a good chance that your attitude would prove to be the less conservative one.

Over time, most societies have grown more promiscuous, and that’s no longer a sign of declining morality. Today’s educated and independent women are more promiscuous than those of previous generations, and there’s an interesting economic explanation. The women of today can afford to be promiscuous.

Most fundamentally, they have the means to buy their own contraceptives, which protect them from STDs and inopportune or unwanted pregnancies. What’s more, today’s women are sufficiently empowered to insist that the contraceptives are used correctly.

If we go back just one or two generations, women weren’t half as free. Unmarried women who maintained sexual relationships with more than one man were essentially pariahs. They were publicly shamed and their reputations were forever tarnished.

Today, however, premarital and extramarital relationships are far more socially acceptable. So are pregnancies that result from such relationships. Since the average educated woman earns much more now than she would have a generation ago, she is in a position to raise a child on her own if she so desires. And, if she chooses to terminate the pregnancy, that is also a socially acceptable, not to mention affordable, decision.

Thanks to these developments, women today are better able to cope with the difficulties that often accompany an unexpected pregnancy.

With lowered financial and social risks, the number of premarital pregnancies has increased.

You might think that the introduction of safe and reliable contraceptives such as birth control pills would reduce pregnancies. However, premarital birth rates have actually increased over the years.

This might sound contradictory, but remember that as contraceptives improved, the potential financial and social risks surrounding premarital sex dramatically decreased, leading to more active sex lives.

The law of supply and demand has led to women becoming more sexually active in college.

If you didn’t get lucky in college, don’t feel too bad. After all, the marketplace may not have been in your favor.

That’s right, when we look at sexual activity on college campuses, we can clearly see the laws of supply and demand in action. Unsurprisingly enough, heterosexual male students stand a better chance of having sex before graduation if they attend a college with a higher female population.

The criteria of internet dating sites create a thin marketplace.

If you’ve had any experience with online dating, you know that these sites can have thousands of active members, and that it’s impossible to find the time to inspect every single profile. So, instead of scrolling for all eternity, you rely on the questions the site asks. You check a few boxes about your likes and dislikes, and you hope for the best.

However, the extremely broad questions these dating sites ask often make the market ridiculously thin – drastically reducing the likelihood of your finding your ideal partner.

Marriage makes good economic sense for the household and the bedroom.

Have you ever wondered why people get married? It’s a fair question. And, in truth, the answer likely has more to do with economics than romance.

A household isn’t unlike a business with demands that need to be met. Like business partners, partners in marriage are, ideally, two people with complementary skills – skills that allow them to satisfy household demands better than either partner would alone.

Better economics pushed polygamy aside in favor of well-educated wives with marital power.

Have you ever wondered why some societies accept polygamous marriages? Though the idea of a man taking multiple wives might seem strange to you, there are, in some countries, clear reasons to condone the practice – specifically, economic reasons.

From an economic standpoint, it makes good sense that a woman would prefer becoming the second or third wife of a wealthy man than the first and only wife of a poor man. While being an additional wife might come at a “cost,” that cost is nonetheless outweighed by the benefits.

Divorce rates are closely related to financial security and economic equality.

Most of us probably think that love is the glue that keeps most marriages together. But money and education play big roles as well.

According to a recent study conducted by economics professors Philip Oreopoulos and Kjell Salvanes, those with a postgraduate degree only have a 3-percent chance of getting divorced, while those with a high school diploma have a 16-percent chance.

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What is Dollars and Sex about?

Dollars and Sex (2013) demystifies the complex issues of sex and love by looking beyond the raging hormones and cultural mores and exploring the driving force behind most of the world’s sexual trends: economics. By applying simple economic theory, we can better understand why we regard romance the way we do as well as why contemporary relationships face so many challenges.

Best quote from Dollars and Sex

...when women are abundant, there is far less traditional dating and far more hooking up.

—Marina Adshade

Who should read Dollars and Sex?

Economists and cognitive scientists
Readers curious about the relationship between money and love
Couples hoping to learn more about sexual and marital behavior

About the Author

Dr. Marina Adshade, PhD, teaches at the University of British Columbia’s School of Economics. She regularly writes for the Globe and Mail and is a frequent contributor to publications such as Time and the Wall Street Journal.

Categories with Dollars and Sex

Economics Psychology Sex & Relationships

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