Analysis of Prostitution Price Services in New Jersey - Essay Example

What likely happened to the price of prostitution services in New Jersey during the most recent Super Bowl and why? This paper discusses what happened to the price of prostitution services in the New Jersey during the most recent Super Bowl and why there were such changes in the price. Prostitution is all about the provision of the human body and human sexuality in the form of a commodity in exchange for money. Prostitution in New Jersey is licenced, thus, those who have a license provide the services as a profession. During Super Bowl among other sporting events sport events, one biggest attraction is prostitution. New Jersey held the Super Bowl recently on 2nd Feb, 2014 in Meadowland. During the event, prices were adjusted accordingly, and this made the prices go up due to the various reasons outlined in this paper. First, the increases in demand for sex in New Jersey during the Super Bowl event lead to an increase in prices of the prostitution services in the city. In economic terms, prostitution refers to a commodity traded in a supply and demand market. Braeutigan illustrates that, if the demand of the commodity increases and the supply remains constant then prices of that commodity goes up (45). The influx of people in New Jersey to watch the Super Bowl games at Mat Life stadium increased the demand for prostitution, which in turn increased the price of the prostitution services in the city. Second, the constant supply of prostitution services during the Super Bowl also contributed to the increase in price of prostitution services in New Jersey (Stigler 6). Super Bowl event attracted tens of thousands of people to the city of whom most of them wanted prostitution services. Due to the constant supply of the service provided during the event, the prices went up. There was a low level of supply of the prostitution services in the city during the event because of the Super Bowl crackdown, strict rules and regulations laid by the NYID police during the event. These were meant to reduce the number of prostitution providers in the city who were not legally permitted into the business. Therefore, the supply of the prostitution services during the event was very low, hence; caused the increase in the prices of the prostitution services in the city Third factor that lead to increase in the prices of prostitution services in New Jersey is the monopolistic competition market structure in New Jersey. This type of the market structure is where there are few firms in the prostitution industry more so during the Super Bowl event. This created the monopoly power in the prostitution industry in the New Jersey, which resulted in high charges as they are the ones who determine the prices. Also because of product differentiation in the prostitution industry, made the prices increase during the event (Nagle 24). Product differentiation such as the female appearance, body type and make up in the industry during the Super Bowl games event made the service providers increase the prices as the clients were in need of high quality prostitution services. The fourth factor that led to an increase in the prostitution prices is an increase in the opportunity cost. This is the cost foregone for marriage opportunities. The assumption is that a female cannot be married and a prostitute at the same time. During the Super Bowl, most men could go for the prostitution services in New Jersey because it costs less compared to getting married to such females. Due to the increase in the demand because of the high opportunity cost of marriage led to an increase in prices of the prostitution services in New Jersey. During this period, there were also other cost incurred in the prostitution industry that could have led to an increase in the prices of the services (Bowmaker 13). Being that most people needed high quality services, the cost of providing such prostitution services went up during the Super Bowl. In addition, the service providers had to rent more premises to cater for the large number of customers. This made the prices go up as the cost of the service provisions increased. Although at the basic level, providers of these services who operate on the street conducted their business outdoors or in client’s cars and did not require premises, but they still had to put on seductive clothes which could attract the customers. This increased the cost of the prostitution services during the event, which made the prices to increase The fifth factor is the demand-side of prostitution in the in New Jersey. The demand-side was available in the form of males who demanded the prostitution services during the Super Bowl event in New Jersey. During the games event, males were willing to pay a premium rate to avoid the cost of the unpaid sex such as giving gifts, winning with these women who provide the unpaid sex and other long term consequences of the unpaid sex. Therefore, the demand side during the event in providing the prostitution services went up as the number of these demanders increased in New Jersey. This led to an increase in prices of the prostitution in New Jersey. The demand side in economics terms in the prostitution industry is where the high prices attracts the wealthiest people this made the prostitution service providers increase the prices. Further, the supply-side of the prostitution services also led to an increase in the prices during the Super Bowl event. On the supply-side, there were high class providers of prostitution during the Super Bowl event in New Jersey. The prostitution service providers increased the prices to give signals of high quality services to attract customers who were safest, healthiest, cleanest and most intellectually refined variety (Bowmaker 12). The supply-side of the prostitution was much better organized with sex workers in unions or prostitution service organizations. This made these unions demand high prices during the Super Bowl event which led to an increase in prices of prostitution services in New Jersey. They were also charging high prices during this Super Bowl event because they wanted to compensate for the risk of violence, risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and for the generally unpleasant physical experience that prostitution entails. In economic terms, the high the cost incurred whether financially, physically or emotionally the more should be charged to supply such service so as to cater for the cost. Therefore, the prices of the prostitution services went up to compensate for these unforeseen costs in New Jersey during the Super Bowl event. And due to tough law enforcement to the supply-side such tax increase during the Super Bowl event made the prostitution service providers increase the prices to as to pay for the tax expenses laid on them during the event.. In conclusion during the Super Bowl Event the prices of the prostitution services increased due the large number of people who attended the event. This led to an increase in demand for the prostitution services in New Jersey. Also, due to the shortage of the supply of the services during the event due to the strict rules by the government on prostitution, the price went up drastically. On the other hand, most of the people who attended the event were wealthiest people who were associated with high prices hence the increase in the prices was perceived in the industry as high quality service to the clients hence the high prices during the event. Works Cited Bowmaker, Simon W. (Ed). Economics Uncut: A complete Guide to Life, Death and Misadventure. New York: Edward Elgar, 2012. Print Braeutigam Ronald. Microeconomics. (8th ed.). Wiley. 2010. Print Nagle, Thomas T. The Strategy and Tactics of Pricing: A Guide to Profitable Decision Making. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2009. Print. Stigler, George J. The Theory of Price. 7th ed. New York: Macmillan, 2011. Print Read More