How Can You Give Better Gifts? (Replay)

How many bottles of wine are regifted? What’s wrong with giving cash? And should Angela give her husband a subscription to the Sausage of the Month Club?

 

SOURCES:Joel Waldfogel, professor of strategic management & entrepreneurship at the University of Minnesota.

 

RESOURCES:“How to Become a Truly Excellent Gift Giver,” by Eliza Brooke (Vox, 2022).“How to Calculate a Holiday Tip for the Doorman,” by Ronda Kaysen (The New York Times, 2022).“Least Favorite Gifts to Receive for Christmas in the United States in 2022, by Generation,” (Statista, 2022).“(Not) Giving the Same Old Song and Dance: Givers’ Misguided Concerns About Thoughtfulness and Boringness Keep Them From Repeating Gifts,” by Julian Givi (Journal of Business Research, 2020).“Does Anyone Really Buy the Giant Car Bows You See in Every Commercial?” by Aditi Shrikant (Vox, 2018).“It’s the Motive That Counts: Perceived Sacrifice Motives and Gratitude in Romantic Relationships,” by Mariko L. Visserman, Francesca Righetti, Emily A. Impett, Dacher Keltner, and Paul A. M. Van Lange (Emotion, 2018).“Why Certain Gifts Are Great to Give but Not to Get: A Framework for Understanding Errors in Gift Giving,” by Jeff Galak, Julian Givi, and Elanor F. Williams (Current Directions in Psychological Science, 2016).“The Girl Who Gets Gifts From Birds,” by Katy Sewall (B.B.C. News, 2015).“The Disappointing Gift: Dispositional and Situational Moderators of Emotional Expressions,” by Renée M. Tobin and William G. Graziano (Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 2011).Scroogenomics: Why You Shouldn’t Buy Presents for the Holidays, by Joel Waldfogel (2009).“The Deadweight Loss of Christmas,” by Joel Waldfogel (The American Economic Review, 1993).United States Postal Service Employee Tipping and Gift-Receiving Policy.

 

EXTRAS:“Have a Very Homo Economicus Christmas,” by Freakonomics Radio (2012).