I had recently had a visitor, my wife's 19 year old nephew, who came from the States to stay for a couple of weeks. Winter weather in the UK and Ireland is always damp and cold, generally conducive to bad colds. His dress was teenage fashion, at least where he comes from: a t-shirt and a short sleeve shirt, unbuttoned. In a dry climate, this might be tolerable; in a damp climate it is deadly. He adamantly refused to wear a sweater, and came down with a chest infection.
My puzzle is this. I am familiar with only two rational choice explanation for fashions: information cascades and signaling. Information cascades may explain why doctors use the same medicine, but I do not see how they explain odd clothing fashions, from bell bottoms to platform shoes. Signaling may explain weird clothes among teenagers, but I do not see how it can explain costly attachment to fashion where there is no one to signal. Is there a better rational choice explanation of fashion? Bill Sjostrom +++++++++++++ William Sjostrom Senior Lecturer Department of Economics National University of Ireland, Cork Cork, Ireland +353-21-490-2091 (work) +353-21-427-3920 (fax) +353-21-463-4056 (home) [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.ucc.ie/~sjostrom/
