70
The Stripper Index: Decoding the Economic Signals of Sex Work - Business Review at Berkeley
(businessreview.studentorg.berkeley.edu)
this post was submitted on 02 May 2025
70 points (100.0% liked)
Mildly Interesting
20372 readers
370 users here now
This is for strictly mildly interesting material. If it's too interesting, it doesn't belong. If it's not interesting, it doesn't belong.
This is obviously an objective criteria, so the mods are always right. Or maybe mildly right? Ahh.. what do we know?
Just post some stuff and don't spam.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Reminds me of that joke statistic - economists have predicted 28 of the last 5 recessions.
Like, it's fun to talk about "The Stripper Index" because it feels naughty. But is there anything that differentiates it from the Amusement Park Index or the Ice Cream Index? It's all discretionary spending, and presumably should all point in the same direction. Add to this that (1) sex work is taboo - and therefore may be more likely to be influenced by any number of things, like religious or social media trends, and (2) that much of sex work occurs in black or grey markets, where reported earnings are dubious at best, and I really doubt that this is a significantly better economic indicator than the tools actual economists already use.
The "Big Mac" Index is only used for purchasing power parity.