Imagine that you have two tickets to tonight’s NBA game in your city and that the arena is forty miles away. But it’s begun to snow, and you’ve found out that your team’s star has been injured and won’t be playing. Should you go, or just throw away the money and skip it? To answer that question as an economist would, ask yourself the following question: “Suppose you didn’t have tickets to the game, and a friend called you up and said he had two tickets to tonight’s game which he couldn’t use, and asked if you’d like to have them.” If the answer is “You’ve got to be kidding. It’s snowing and
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