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Marina Adshade    

Author of "Dollars and Sex: How Economics Influences Sex and Love"

Marina Adshade uses engaging research, human insight, and economic analysis to unlock the mysteries behind our actions, thoughts and preferences regarding sexual relationships, gender, love and power. She shows that every option, every decision and every outcome in the realm of sex and love is better understood through economics. The end result is a fascinating, and often humorous, look at just how central the interplay of romance and economic forces is to the most important choices we make in our lives.

Marina has spent the last twelve years teaching economics and engaging in original economic research. In 2008, she launched an undergraduate course titled Economics of Sex and Love, which invited her students to approach questions of sex and love through an economist’s lens. The class was an immediate hit with students and, by the time the first term started, had generated international media attention.

Today, Marina is a regular contributor to the Globe and Mail, Time.com and the Huffington Post. Her work has received attention from around the globe; The Wall Street
Journal, The New York Times, Bloomberg News, The Economist, The Independent, The Sunday Times, Men’s Health, Chatelaine, Cosmopolitan, BuzzFeed, Fox
News, CBC Radio and Canada AM, to name but a few, have sought her expertise on how the relationship between love, libido and markets.

Dr. Adshade has a Ph.D. from Queen’s University and currently teaches economics at the Vancouver School of Economics at the University of British Columbia.

Speech Topics

Dollars and Sex: Why the Market Matters

In Dollars and Sex, economist Marina Adshade converts economic theory into a sexy science by applying the principles of supply and demand and other market forces to matters of love and libido. In hugely popular and highly customizable talks, Adshade unlocks the mysteries behind our actions, thoughts, and preferences using engaging research, economic analysis, and humour. She explains that when it comes to matters of the heart, the market matters, too. Beyond data and theory, understanding the way these markets operate provides a structured way to think about the world around us. Now more than ever, it's important to understand how our economy is affecting the more personal aspects of our lives. In an era in which sexuality and relationships are mired in politics and personal values, Adshade offers a refreshing approach that can be very revealing. Ultimately, she shows the audience that every option, every decision and every outcome in matters of sex and love is better understood through economics.

With colourful storytelling, empirical evidence and hard data, Adshade answers our burning questions from within an economic framework -- and those questions we never thought to ask, such as:

  • How do we sabotage our chances of finding a mate when dating online?
  • What is the relationship between rising rates of casual sex and the widening earning gap?
  • Why have we become so promiscuous over the past century? In what direction are we heading?
  • Why have divorce rates been falling over the past 30 years and what economic forces will determine divorce rates in the future?
  • What does it mean to be married in 2012? Is modern marriage just an opportunity to consume more goods and services?
  • Why are teen pregnancy rates in the US so high relative to other developed nations—and is there hope that this might change?

News

Erogenous Economy: 'Dollars and Sex' - Bloomberg
Why not of economists, too? In a new book, “Dollars and Sex: How Economics Influences Sex and Love,” Marina Adshade sees a world where our love lives are  ...
Marina Adshade, author of Dollars and Sex, speaks at Ideacity ...
Marina Adshade, speaks at the annual Toronto conference of smart people and big ideas, on Friday, June 21.

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