While much has been written about the connection between dogs and humans, a new book co-authored by David L. Weimer of the La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Madison–Wisconsin is among the first to use an economic lens to consider the uniqueness of this interspecies relationship.
Dog Economics: Perspectives on Our Canine Relationships examines dogs’ role as both family and property. The book, released this month and co-authored by Weimer and Aidan R. Vining of Simon Fraser University, takes a novel approach in that it applies foundational economic concepts to our relationship with dogs.
Weimer and Vining call this approach “dogonomics.” Through this lens, the phenomenon of puppies adopted during the COVID pandemic can be understood as both the increased value of companionship and lower opportunity costs of caring for dogs when people were isolated in their homes. Family economics helps explain how dogs can be used as complements to, or even substitutes for, children. Predatory and harmful puppy mills can be viewed in terms of market failures due to information asymmetry and negative externalities. Increasing demand for dog breeds featured in popular culture can be explained by the economic theory of fads.
Dog Economics also traces the historical development of the close human-canine association, which goes back more than 20,000 years to when humans began domesticating dogs for use in hunting, standing guard, and providing warmth and companionship.
