Avinash Dixit is one of my favorite economists, in part because he has a trait that is extremely rare among economists: a good sense of humor.
In a recent paper, Avinash explores a decision problem drawn from Seinfeld. When the contraceptive sponge that Elaine favors is taken off the market, she scours the city buying up as many sponges as she can; but with finite supply, she faces a difficult decision as to which men are worthy of her precious sponges.
Avinash uses the tools of stochastic dynamic programming to help Elaine?solve her problem.
For this important contribution, I suspect Elaine would conclude that Avinash is himself spongeworthy.
and 
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The sponges have probably expired by now.
or did I miss the point?
I was waiting for George or Kramer to ask “Don’t those things have an expiration date?” Cut to Elaine’s look of alarm.
Come to think of it, if she ends up with a large supply of sponges given their expiration date, that would change the parameters completely. She’d have to go out and find more partners to use up the sponges so as to not waste her investment.
You missed the lede entirely, the abstract is the core of this (and most other) econ papers.
This is a paper about nothing
How is this for a branding title:
Sponge Marge Square Panties
The abstract of this paper is absolutely beautiful. If I had a limited supply of laughs, I would find it laugh-worthy.
The first footnote is also laugh-worthy.
Does the graph in Figure 1 represent the shape of things to come?
The sponge isn’t alone with an expiration date. Since the sponge does not protect against STDs, it is only a protection against an unwanted pregnancy. Elaine will eventually enter menopause, and the sponge will no longer be necessary.
What happens when the supply exceeds its usefulness with respect to Eleane’s remainng reproductive years?