Summary: <p>Gift-giving <a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2009/11/podcast_happy_efficent_holiday.html" target="_blank">makes economists crazy</a>. It's so inefficient!</p><p>So we wondered: Is there a way to make the holiday season both more efficient and more joyful?</p><p>On today's Planet Money, we try to answer that question by conducting a wildly unscientific experiment. We go into a seventh-grade classroom and give a bunch of kids some small gifts — candy, raisins, fig newtons.</p><p>Then we ask them how much they value what they got, and if they can think of a way to make everyone better off, without buying any more gifts. They quickly arrive at a solution: trade.</p><p>Behold, the power of economics!</p>
