Economists Discover Miracle Hangover Cure: Drink Less

Assignment
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1
This essay considers the article, named, “Economists discover miracle hangover cure: drink
less”, written by Jessica Irvine, which was aimed to propose a new mechanism for curing the
hangover through economics. The author gives an example of Chris, a young and rational
economist, who takes decision on the consumption of more beers or going back home by
applying the economic concept of utility maximisation and opportunity cost. The author tries
to observe what will happen if the economists rule the world with the consequence of Chris’
decision (Baumeister & Vohs, 2018). However, she also points out some limitations
regarding the assumption that she considers for analysing the entire article. The chief
intention of the present essay is to provide answers to some of the question, which are posted
by the article of Jessica Irvine.
The writer considers two assumptions, which are, inefficient allocation of resources and the
world ruled out by economists for discussing the entire paper. In other words, it can be said
that this article assumes scarcity of resources and rational human to develop the entire model.
These two assumptions are crucial to economists for developing theories and making models.
Based on these assumptions, economists can describe how rational human can allocate scarce
resources efficiently to maximise their utility (Harris et al., 2017). In this world, the demand
for human for any good or service is unlimited while the number of resources for making
these are limited. Hence, people, especially, the Government or production firms use the
models to know the answers of some basic questions. These questions address what is needed
to produce and for whom and also the process of production with the limited resources.
The opportunity cost implies the benefit, which a person gives up by choosing the alternative
one (Read, Olivola & Hardisty, 2016). According to the article, the opportunity cost of Chris
is one extra glass of beer, which he sacrifices by deciding to go home and play the new Play
station.
According to the journalist, a rational individual will not intend to pay an extra penny to
continue drinking as this will affect him/her adversely from both mentally and physically.
Thus, the concept of utility maximisation will be destroyed over here. Hence, considering the
cost-benefit analysis, the cost of consuming one extra glass of beer could exceed the benefit
received by consuming it (Nas 2016). This could happen as people cannot always measure
the ultimate consequences of each action taken by him/her. In addition to this, humans also
remain unable to measure opportunity costs as they only think about what to do and what not
to do without considering other possible opportunities related to each action. This reason is
true as people do not stop drinking beer after a few glasses; rather they leave it after realising