Roland Fryer is a very enterprising young economist at Harvard whose early work, much of it in collaboration with Steve Levitt, is featured in Freakonomics.
Roland’s creativity is not limited to academic economics. A while back, he told me his idea for opening a bar in Cambridge where an electronic tote board would list the prices of the beers and each beer would rise or fall in price throughout the night depending on demand.
Well, someone beat him to it. It’s in Berlin and is called the Broker’s Bier Borse; here’s a blog entry about it.
How do you think the market would play out in such a bar? If you were spending the night there with friends, how would you behave? Would you behave differently if you were drinking alone?
(Hat tip: Nils Thingvall)
and 
. You can also watch it on 
If you were spending the night there with friends, how would you behave?
We would evaluate various light-colored lagers throughout the night using Price-to-Inebriation ratios, then at last call we would attempt a hostile takeover to corner the market on Guinness.
All on margin, if the barkeep allows.
If you were spending the night there with friends, how would you behave?
We would evaluate various light-colored lagers throughout the night using Price-to-Inebriation ratios, then at last call we would attempt a hostile takeover to corner the market on Guinness.
All on margin, if the barkeep allows.
Dang! I had this idea in High School! ‘Cept it was for coffee.
Dang! I had this idea in High School! ‘Cept it was for coffee.
As a grad student in Cambridge at the moment, of course I’d love this sort of place to open.
But the fella also got beat to the punch by a place called Brau House in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia that I discovered with a buddy while traveling. Not only was the beer even cheaper if you timed it right but where else can you get fermented horse milk vodka whenever you like?!
As a grad student in Cambridge at the moment, of course I’d love this sort of place to open.
But the fella also got beat to the punch by a place called Brau House in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia that I discovered with a buddy while traveling. Not only was the beer even cheaper if you timed it right but where else can you get fermented horse milk vodka whenever you like?!
This was quite common in Student bars in England around 1995. There were a couple of companies that had systems that bars could rent out for the night.
This was quite common in Student bars in England around 1995. There were a couple of companies that had systems that bars could rent out for the night.