I first met Steve Levitt, an economist and co-author of Freakonomics about 20 years ago

now.

I was a graduate student in economics at the University of Chicago, a place where ideas

live, but fun comes to die, as I've heard said before.

Steve was teaching an evening course there on how to come up with ideas.

I remember one of the first ideas I pitched to him, by the way, Steve always gave his

pizza during that class, which was pretty great.

Anyway, one of the first ideas I pitched was about the link between Viagra and divorce.

You see, at that time in graduate school, we were learning about the economics of the household,

work by economists like Gary Becker, a Nobel laureate, who had pioneered our understanding

of human and social capital.

Becker was also one of the first economists to study the economics of divorce.

So with Becker's work freshen my mind and sitting in Steve's class, listening to the

unconventional ways he thought about problems, it may be wonder how the introduction of Viagra

might have affected marriages.

You see, on one hand Viagra, which was and is primarily used by men, could make marriages

stronger if it allowed couples to engage in a way that they previously couldn't.

And I'm being careful here about my language because my daughter sometimes listens to this

show, not out of choice, but because it is a requirement for her to get TV time in

our house.

But you can also see how Viagra might lead to divorce if it increased the quote-unquote

outside options by that I mean other partners that men perceived they would have because

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