Children can be very calculating. Just ask economist, author and father of three Joshua Gans.

The University of Melbourne professor has written text books for students, but now he has a growing following of parents, grandparents and other victims of tantrum-throwing toddlers and testing teenagers.

His latest work, Parentonomics, was launched at Federation Square yesterday, on the final day of the Melbourne Writers Festival.

This is not an academic endeavour, but the result of Professor Gans’ attempt to apply key economic principles to raising his children.

“To be sure, I experimented on the kids, but it was general stuff and not limited to economics,” he told the audience. “It’s almost a memoir — a bunch of stories on how I approached parenting issues.”

Professor Gans found his nine-year-old daughter responded to incentives.

“She has base motivations, most notably food, and you can get her to do anything with the promise of food,” he said. “Incentives is the basis of economics — getting the price right and doing a deal.”

He even advocates negotiating with babies over sleep.

“I know it’s a bit controversial because a lot of people say the baby’s needs come first,” he said. “But parents have needs too and that means getting a baby to understand crying doesn’t get them everything.”

He said many people wrongly expect his book to detail the costs of raising children.

The closest he gets to that subject is talking about the stress birthday parties put on the family budget.

“You might want all the kids to come to your party, but it’s at a cost to the other 25 families,” he said.

“And you have to repay it. That means every weekend you’re off to a birthday party. It’s just terrible. Sometimes there’s two in one day.

“Thank God for this launch because we got out of three children’s parties as a result,” he said.

Source: The Age, Australia
http://www.theage.com.au/national/how-to-bargain-for-peace-and-quiet-20080831-46fh.html