Let’s say a man who’s bald as bowling ball, à la Bruce Willis today, has the opportunity to re-grow those locks so as to resemble a more luscious-locked Willis from his Die Hard days, or an even floppier hairstyle, perhaps like that Willis sported in his Moonlighting era. How much would he pay for this opportunity? This is, quite literally, the question posed by three Appalachian State University economists in a preprint of a paper published online in January and appropriately titled “Willingness Toupee.”
Read more of A HAIRY QUESTION at qz.com.
On Friday, February 8, 2019, the Chronicle of Higher Education's Daily Briefing - a digest of the most important news developments in higher ed - highlighted the research from Drs. Dave McEvoy, Ash Morgan and John Whitehead.
Using 167 respondents from MTurk, the researchers found that men would be willing to pay an average of $21,280 to go from today's Willis to the hair of John McClane in Die Hard, and then an additional $5,320 to look like Moonlighting's David Addison Jr. Balding men will pay big bucks for more hair, and that could have significant implications for the market economy, according to the paper. Further study could prove pretty rich for scholars, too. "This research," the authors write, "suggests an infinite number of layers and extensions."
Many men would pay thousands to re-grow their hair
