can attest that it has also arrived in Germany our kids demand to wear costumes which for German older Germans is confusing because they used to only wear costumes a carnival which is in February and so anyway these costumes just get reused now twice it seems like every year you mentioned vandalism as part of the holiday and yeah that has always sort of been a peripheral aspect of the holiday in my recollection especially among teenagers is there a kind of measurable negative economic cost in that scale of vandalism and is there an economic way to think through the causes of those kinds of Halloween transgressions I mean would an economist say a costume weakens a sense of personal responsibility say I'm not sure

whether in a common cycle that's my answer try it can I get dressed up and put on a mask and you'll see what happens certainly in New York it seems to be disinhibiting in more ways than one um they uh I think yeah I mean as far as I understand that trick-or-treating at this point in the certainly suburban America where I encountered like the Halloween thing at its most intense seems to consist largely of wrapping houses in toilet paper which is you know quite the thing but more seriously if you actually look at the economic statistics there really is a surge at least in insurance claims it may be that people simply think that this is the day of the year to make a vandalism insurance claim but there is a huge surge there's a 68% surge in vandalism claims 11% surge in theft and also apparently there's an insurance category called mysterious disappearances and those those surge as well from an economic point of view it's difficult to know but whether that really constitutes a loss right this is the ambiguity of economics that clearly from the point of view of the household suffering the damage it's a loss but from the point of view the economy as a whole it's a chance to employ a handy manner of craftsman to put the damage right uh you know and everyone makes out more seriously though and this really is a thing is that it's a major day for drunk driving and for road fatalities um there's a 60% surge in drunk driving fatalities on America's roads on on on Halloween and perhaps most tragically of all and if you live in suburban America it really it came home to be quite hard actually it's one of the beautiful things about Halloween in suburban Americas it's one of the few times of the year but people actually walk around their neighborhoods most people in suburban America you know step out their front door go to their carport get into their car and then drive and on Halloween Eve like and people literally just you know get their little red wagons and process around their neighborhoods and and and and there's no in small towns it's really a very it's really very cheerful and pleasant unfortunately however when Americans step out of their cars onto the pavement and disaster issues and it is Halloween is the worst day of the year for pedestrian fatalities in the United States because there were just more people on the street and more drunk drivers um so whatever you're doing out there um be safe hmm

yeah