Who Thunk It: Gang Colors

So I have decided to add a new piece to this blog, a weekly special. It will be called "Who Thunk It" and it will feature abstract news/ideas that really don't get talked about.

This weeks Who Thunk It is courtesy of the Wall Street Journal and is a blog entry by Christopher Shea (the blog can be found here). Instead of rewriting the entry, I encourage readers to read his blog entry, its quiet fascinating.

Here's a basic summation, a new paper published by Andrew Mell, an economist at Nuffield College, Oxford attacks the long question of why gang members wear specific gang colors. He notes that it because of the signaling between gang members who are legitimate, the status of showing how confident one is, solidarity, among other things. Now of course gangs have colors that define their gang among other things, but what this paper demonstrates is the economics behind the who situation. 


It a great read. Here is a direct link to the paper (click here).