Hello and welcome to more or less on the BBC World Service, with a programme that examines

the numbers all around us in the news and in life, and I'm Tim Halfard. This week, as

many people around the world are poised to celebrate the Christmas holiday, I couldn't

help but think about my favourite subject. Which one I hear you say? Ward games, carols,

why my book keeps selling out at the book shops? No, I'm thinking of economics. Christmas

may not be interested in economists, but economists are interested in Christmas. And that's because

it's not just a religious festival but a commercial blowout with lots of feasting and shopping.

But this year, Covid-19 has brought restrictions for many, making it impossible to have the

usual festivities and it's got me thinking, how will this affect spending this year? So I decided

to call up an economist who has had plenty to say about Christmas spending in the past.

So I'm Joel Waldfogel, I'm an economist professor at the Carlson School of Management at

the University of Minnesota. I started by asking Joel what impact Christmas usually has on

spending in the US?

Well, it's a big deal. I mean, in the sense that in the US, for example, if you look at

the change in spending, the difference between December and the months around it, which I think

one could naturally attribute to Christmas gift giving, that's about $80 billion a year

in the US. And it's comparable quantities around the world. US is not unusual in the amount

of money that it spends on holiday gifts. So it's a non-trivial amount. And other folks,

I mean, count a lot more as holiday spending. They'll count all of the spending during November

and December and come up with much, much, much bigger numbers.

But I'm guessing you don't think those big numbers are entirely plausible. I don't. I mean,

I don't think that all the gasoline that people purchased in November was a holiday gift.

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