May 22, 2004
Stuff We Already Knew
I posted a few weeks ago on an MIT study which found that, surprise, smoking is cool. Now, a study from the Journal of Bioeconomics states in academese another rather intuitive truth. The name of the paper -- I'm not kidding -- is, "Surrender Value of Capital Assets: The Economics of Strategic Virginity Loss."
And here's the executive summary:
This paper provides the first econometric analysis of rationalizations of virginity loss in terms of love. Data from the UK National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles are used to estimate logit equations to predict the claim that virginity loss was occasioned by being in love. The sample consists of 2,269 males and 1,476 females between the ages of 16 and 59. In economic terms, a dichotomy is found in terms of male and female virginity loss, such that to a degree it is possible to infer that sex is for males more of a consumption good, whilst for females it is more of a capital good.Well yeah.
Hat tip: Mahalanobis.