Self-study
Economist: Conclusion Gifts of cash or gift cards, which allow the recipient to choose the actual gift, are more highly valued by recipients than are gifts chosen for them by others. ██ █ ██████ ████ ██████ ████ █████ ███ ████ ████ █████ ████ ████ ███████ ██ ███ ███ █████ ██████ ███ ████ ██ ███████ ████ █████████ ██ ██████ ███████ ████ ████ ██ ███████ ████ █████ ██████████ ██ ███ ██████ █████ ██ ███ ██████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that cash gifts of gift cards are more highly valued by recipients than are gifts chosen for them by others. This is based on a study in which people were asked how much they would have been willing to pay for gifts chosen for them by others. People responded with amounts that were, on average, two-thirds the actual price of the gifts.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that the amount people state for how much they would have been willing to pay for a gift is an accurate measure of how much they value the gift.
22.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ █████████ ███████ ███ ███████████ █████████
a
The rate at █████ █████ ███ ████████ ██ █████████ ███ ████ ████████ ██████████ █████ ███ ████ ███ █████ █████████
The increasing return rate has no clear impact on how much people value gifts chosen by others. If (A) does anything, it might support the idea that people prefer the cash equivalent of a gift over the gift.
b
Gifts of cash ███ ████ █████ █████████ █████████ ████ █████ ██ ███████ ██ ███ ████ ███████
How often people give gifts of cash or gift cards has no clear impact on whether people value the cash equivalent more than a gift chosen by others. Perhaps people tend not to give cash or gift cards because it’s perceived as worse than giving someone else a gift?
c
People in the █████ █████ ████ ████ ███████ ██ ███ ████ ███ █████ ██████ ███ ████ ██ █████ ███████ ███ █████████ ████ ███ █████ ██████ ███ ████ ██ ███████
This compares gifts chosen by close friends/relatives to gifts chosen by other kinds of people. But this comparison, which is between subsets of the “gifts chosen by others,” doesn’t affect the comparison between gifts chosen by others and cash/gift cards.
d
People are unwilling ██ ████ █████ ██████ ███ ████ ██ ██████ ██████ ███████ █████ ███ ███ █ ████ █████ ███ ██████ ██████ ██████
This presents a competing method of determining how much people value a gift, which produces a conflicting result. If people are unwilling to sell a gift unless offered more than its actual price, that arguably suggests people value gifts more than the cash equivalent.
e
Most retailers require ████████ ██████ ██████ ███ ██████ █████ ███ ██████ ██ █████████
Whether retailers require receipts has no clear impact on the comparison between gifts and cash/gift cards.