2008年2月19日 君子好逑
 

亲爱的经济学家，

Dear Economist¹,

我今年17岁，我就读的学校不久前才变成男女同校。和我一样，其他六年级的学生几乎都是男生。我觉得学校不能满足我浪漫的需求，在校期间我永远都不会知道什么是真爱。事实上，我根本没什么指望可以找到爱情。你能不能帮帮我，或者哪怕只是给点儿希望？

I am 17 years old and my school only recently became coeducational. The other sixth-form students are almost all male, like me. I feel that the school does not meet my romantic needs and that I will never know true love while at school. In fact, I’m not having much luck at finding any love at all. Please can you help, or even just offer some hope?

没有恋爱的学生K?贝德福德(K, Bedford)

Yours, truly lovelorn,Student K, Bedford

亲爱的学生K，

Dear Student K,

你是对的。六年级没有满足你的浪漫需求。即使男孩数量仅略高于女孩（比如，55比45），假设根据传统每个人都是成双成对，那么将会有10个男孩落单，在荷尔蒙的刺激下，他们愿意变着法儿地向女孩们提供更好的条件。聪明的女孩知道如何利用这种健康的竞争，使其对自己有利。

You are right. The sixth form does not meet your romantic needs. Even if the boys only mildly outnumbered the girls – say, 55 to 45 – then assuming everyone paired off in the traditional fashion, there would be 10 boys left out, hormones² raging, willing to offer the girls a better deal in one way or another. Sensible girls know how to exploit this healthy competition in their favour.

不过，当你长大一些，就该是你的天下了。在发达国家的城市里，约会年龄的女性数量超过约会年龄的男性。（经济学家莉娜?埃德隆德(Lena Edlund)认为，女性从城市生活中获得的益处多于男性。）

Still, as you grow older, your time will come. In cities across the developed world, dating-age women outnumber dating-age men. (Economist Lena Edlund argues that women have more to gain from city life than men.)

可约会女性的供应过剩，以及随之而来的约会劣势迫使女性急于改善自我，这可以解释为何她们往往比男性穿着更考究，受教育程度也更高。经济学家克尔温?查尔斯(Kerwin Charles)和Ming Luoh的研究发现，当许多本来到适婚年龄的男性最终入狱时，会出现类似的效应。打破约会市场的平衡不太费事，而你的情况似乎尤为极端。

The excess supply of datable women and the resulting dating disadvantage forces women into bursts of self-improvement, which may explain why they tend to be better dressed and better educated than men. Research by economists³ Kerwin Charles and Ming Luoh finds a similar effect when many otherwise-marriageable men end up in prison. It does not take much to tip a dating market out of equilibrium⁴, and your plight⁵ seems particularly extreme.

不过还是振作起来吧。在你这个年纪时，我的处境甚至更糟，就读于一所男校。似乎错过了一切，直到我发现对面的女校愿意通过交易获得一些好处。

Yet take heart. At your age I was in an even worse situation, at an all-boys school. All seemed lost, until I discovered that the girls’ school opposite was willing to look for some gains from trade.