經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)家往往抽象地研究"市場"，但一些市場絕不是抽象的。在荷蘭，阿斯米爾(Aalsmeer)鮮花市場每天會有2000萬朵色彩艷麗的鮮花上市；而東京清晨的筑地魚市(Tsukiji fish market)，其迷人程度足以與六本木(Roppongi)的夜店爭奪游客的注意力。（筑地魚市場游客區(qū)熏鼻的酒味說明，許多游客將這兩種體驗結(jié)合在一起，在這里通宵狂歡。）
Economists tend to study "the market" in the abstract, but some markets are anything but abstract. The Aalsmeer auctions in the Netherlands burst with the colour of more than 20 million flowers a day, while Tokyo's early-morning Tsukiji fish market (lovingly described on page 16) is enthralling enough to compete for tourist attention with the nightclubs of Roppongi. (The stink of alcohol in the tourist pens of Tsukiji suggests that many visitors have combined both experiences to make a night of it.)
除了游客之外，這些的市場也值得經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)家關(guān)注。很多經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)理論都有假設(shè)前提，不考慮市場交易實際如何進(jìn)行。這是一件令人惋惜的事；斯坦福大學(xué)(Stanford)已故經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)家約翰o麥克米蘭(John McMillan)認(rèn)為，市場只有在設(shè)計完備的情況下才能運轉(zhuǎn)良好。市場的全部理念在于使人們能夠從交易中獲利；設(shè)計糟糕的市場通常會失敗。
These celebrated markets deserve attention from economists as well as tourists. A lot of economics assumes away the details of how market transactions actually work. That is a shame; the late John McMillan, an economist at Stanford, argued that markets will only work well if they are well designed. The whole idea of a market is to allow gains from trade to take place; a badly thought-out market will often fail.
即使對于像買魚這樣簡單的交易，事情也并不像乍看上去那樣簡單。
There is more than meets the eye even to a simple transaction such as buying fish.
經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)家凱瑟琳o格雷迪(Kathryn Graddy)曾經(jīng)花了一個月時間，追蹤紐約富爾頓魚市(Fulton Fish Market)中的一位魚商。她大清早就要起床，而且要交保護(hù)費才能把車停到離市場較近的安全地點。她發(fā)現(xiàn)，魚商似乎對不同種族的人要不同的價格--尤其明顯的是，亞裔買家往往會拿到比白人更有利的價格。一個可能的解釋是，亞裔買家在唐人街擁有對價格更加敏感的客戶。
The economist Kathryn Graddy once spent a month shadowing a trader at the Fulton Fish Market in New York, rousing herself in the early hours and paying protection money to park her car in a safe spot near the market. She discovered that market traders appeared to charge different prices to different ethnic groups - in particular, Asian buyers tended to win keener prices than white buyers. The likely explanation was that the Asian buyers had more price- sensitive customers in Chinatown.
盡管如此，這仍是一個令人驚訝的結(jié)果。
Still, this was a surprising result.
在一個競爭性市場，魚商應(yīng)該無法向白人客戶要更高的價，而富爾頓魚市理應(yīng)是一個競爭性市場：它是全球第二大魚市。（筑地魚市場的規(guī)模是富爾頓魚市的5倍多，完全不是一個級別）。格雷迪發(fā)現(xiàn)，即使在富爾頓魚市，完全競爭也難覓蹤跡。
A competitive market should eliminate the traders' ability to charge white customers more, and the Fulton Fish Market should be competitive: it is the world's second largest. (Tsukiji, more than five times larger, is in a league of its own.) Graddy discovered that even at Fulton, perfect competition was elusive.
然而，市場運轉(zhuǎn)得越好，達(dá)成的交易就可能越多。我們或許想要壓制交易，但一些交易如此誘人，以至于壓制力有多大，抵抗力就有多大：無論學(xué)校商店是否有巧克力棒存貨，學(xué)生都會弄到巧克力棒吃。在混亂的索馬里首都摩加迪沙，私營商人想出了使電力市場在沒有電表的情況下也能運轉(zhuǎn)的方法：客戶根據(jù)其家中或者商鋪里的電燈泡數(shù)量付費。
Nevertheless, the better markets work, the more transactions they make possible. Some transactions are so tempting as to be irrepressible, much as we might want to repress them: school children will be supplied with chocolate bars whether or not the school shop stocks them. Other transactions are inspiring in their resilience. In the chaos of Mogadishu, Somalia, private merchants have worked out ways to get the market for electricity to work without metering; customers pay according to the number of bulbs in their home or workshop.
然而，許多交易需要的支持遠(yuǎn)多于此?，F(xiàn)代交易基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施包括法律體系、征信記錄、簽證和公司賬戶。舉例來說，買股票看上去并不太復(fù)雜，但當(dāng)你買股票時，你就等于將資金借給一家公司（例如說一家中國公司），換取與該公司分享未來盈利的權(quán)力。
Economists tend to study "the market" in the abstract, but some markets are anything but abstract. The Aalsmeer auctions in the Netherlands burst with the colour of more than 20 million flowers a day, while Tokyo's early-morning Tsukiji fish market (lovingly described on page 16) is enthralling enough to compete for tourist attention with the nightclubs of Roppongi. (The stink of alcohol in the tourist pens of Tsukiji suggests that many visitors have combined both experiences to make a night of it.)
除了游客之外，這些的市場也值得經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)家關(guān)注。很多經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)理論都有假設(shè)前提，不考慮市場交易實際如何進(jìn)行。這是一件令人惋惜的事；斯坦福大學(xué)(Stanford)已故經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)家約翰o麥克米蘭(John McMillan)認(rèn)為，市場只有在設(shè)計完備的情況下才能運轉(zhuǎn)良好。市場的全部理念在于使人們能夠從交易中獲利；設(shè)計糟糕的市場通常會失敗。
These celebrated markets deserve attention from economists as well as tourists. A lot of economics assumes away the details of how market transactions actually work. That is a shame; the late John McMillan, an economist at Stanford, argued that markets will only work well if they are well designed. The whole idea of a market is to allow gains from trade to take place; a badly thought-out market will often fail.
即使對于像買魚這樣簡單的交易，事情也并不像乍看上去那樣簡單。
There is more than meets the eye even to a simple transaction such as buying fish.
經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)家凱瑟琳o格雷迪(Kathryn Graddy)曾經(jīng)花了一個月時間，追蹤紐約富爾頓魚市(Fulton Fish Market)中的一位魚商。她大清早就要起床，而且要交保護(hù)費才能把車停到離市場較近的安全地點。她發(fā)現(xiàn)，魚商似乎對不同種族的人要不同的價格--尤其明顯的是，亞裔買家往往會拿到比白人更有利的價格。一個可能的解釋是，亞裔買家在唐人街擁有對價格更加敏感的客戶。
The economist Kathryn Graddy once spent a month shadowing a trader at the Fulton Fish Market in New York, rousing herself in the early hours and paying protection money to park her car in a safe spot near the market. She discovered that market traders appeared to charge different prices to different ethnic groups - in particular, Asian buyers tended to win keener prices than white buyers. The likely explanation was that the Asian buyers had more price- sensitive customers in Chinatown.
盡管如此，這仍是一個令人驚訝的結(jié)果。
Still, this was a surprising result.
在一個競爭性市場，魚商應(yīng)該無法向白人客戶要更高的價，而富爾頓魚市理應(yīng)是一個競爭性市場：它是全球第二大魚市。（筑地魚市場的規(guī)模是富爾頓魚市的5倍多，完全不是一個級別）。格雷迪發(fā)現(xiàn)，即使在富爾頓魚市，完全競爭也難覓蹤跡。
A competitive market should eliminate the traders' ability to charge white customers more, and the Fulton Fish Market should be competitive: it is the world's second largest. (Tsukiji, more than five times larger, is in a league of its own.) Graddy discovered that even at Fulton, perfect competition was elusive.
然而，市場運轉(zhuǎn)得越好，達(dá)成的交易就可能越多。我們或許想要壓制交易，但一些交易如此誘人，以至于壓制力有多大，抵抗力就有多大：無論學(xué)校商店是否有巧克力棒存貨，學(xué)生都會弄到巧克力棒吃。在混亂的索馬里首都摩加迪沙，私營商人想出了使電力市場在沒有電表的情況下也能運轉(zhuǎn)的方法：客戶根據(jù)其家中或者商鋪里的電燈泡數(shù)量付費。
Nevertheless, the better markets work, the more transactions they make possible. Some transactions are so tempting as to be irrepressible, much as we might want to repress them: school children will be supplied with chocolate bars whether or not the school shop stocks them. Other transactions are inspiring in their resilience. In the chaos of Mogadishu, Somalia, private merchants have worked out ways to get the market for electricity to work without metering; customers pay according to the number of bulbs in their home or workshop.
然而，許多交易需要的支持遠(yuǎn)多于此?，F(xiàn)代交易基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施包括法律體系、征信記錄、簽證和公司賬戶。舉例來說，買股票看上去并不太復(fù)雜，但當(dāng)你買股票時，你就等于將資金借給一家公司（例如說一家中國公司），換取與該公司分享未來盈利的權(quán)力。