Buy or Bite?
Economics of the Undead, edited by Glen Whitman & James Dow (2014), pp. 123-129
10 Pages Posted: 29 Sep 2013 Last revised: 30 Dec 2015
Date Written: October 1, 2013
Abstract
Why is there so much violence in the vampire world? In brief, our thesis is that most vampire violence is the result of legal failure: the lack of a legalized market for the purchase and sale of blood. This short essay is organized as follows: in part one we analyze the market for blood in the vampire world and explain the logic of vampire violence. Next, in part two, we propose a simple method for reducing such vampire violence. Simply put, we propose giving vampires a meaningful choice: “buy” instead of “bite.” That is, we propose a legal market in which vampires would have the choice to buy blood through voluntary exchange instead of taking it by force. Lastly, in part three, we explain the absence of legal markets in the vampire world, examine the causes of this epic legal failure, and refute the standard arguments against the commodification of blood.
Keywords: Vampires, Blood, Black Markets, Legal Failure, Violence
JEL Classification: D01, K42, Z19
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation