Somebody at the University of Chicago Press has noticed how my mind works, and sent me Slices and Lumps: Division + Aggregation by Lee Anne Fennell. It’s about the implications of the reality that economic resources are, well, lumpy and variably slice-able. The book starts with the concept of configuration: how to divide up goods that exist in lumps to satisfy various claims on them, and how to put together ones that are separate to satisfy needs and demands. The interaction between law (especially property rights) and economics is obvious – the author is a law professor. So is the immediate implication that marginal analysis is not always useful.

This framing in terms of configuration allows the book to range widely over various economic problems. About two thirds of it consists of chapters looking at the issues of configuration in specific contexts such as financial decisions, urban planning, housing decisions. The latter for example encompasses some physical lumpiness or indivisibilities and some legal or regulatory ones. Airbnb – where allowed – enables transactions over excess capacity due to lumpiness, as home owners can sell temporary use rights.

Read more at The Enlightened Economist