Fatal Equilibrium

At Harvard, tenure decisions are a matter of life -- or death.

For Dennis Gossen, the economics department whiz kid currently being considered for tenure, it's definitely death. When he's turned down by the high-and-mighty Promotion and Tenure Committee, Gossen commits suicide.

A Question of Cost Accounting...

Or does he? It's hard to imagine why a young man with a brilliant scholarly future -- at Harvard or not -- would come up with an equation in which the opportunity cost of killing himself (a high price, considering his potential earnings) would be outweighed by the emotional cost of failing to receive tenure.

... Or Utility?

Then two members of the P and T Committee are murdered, and it becomes clear to Professor Henry Spearman of the Economics Department that the killer must be on the committee. But which of his illustrious colleagues would have significantly increased his -- or her -- utility (i.e., happiness) by murdering a faculty member or two? Or three?"As a low-cost way to learn some economics, it achieves a delightful equilibrium." The Wall Street JournalMarshall Jevons is the pseudonym for Kenneth G. Elzinga, the Robert C. Taylor Chair in Economics at the University of Virginia. Mr. Elzinga has a PhD from Michigan State University, and a BA and honorary doctorate from Kalamazoo College. His most recent book is The Mystery of the Invisible Hand: A Henry Spearman Mystery. Along with William Breit, Elzinga cowrote three books in A Henry Spearman Mystery series under the Jevons pen name.