The secret economics inside the new Planet Money board game

Move over Monopoly , there's a new economics-themed game in town!

Last year, Planet Money partnered with the company Exploding Kittens to create a board game. We've been documenting the whole thing in a podcast series .

Well, that game is now on the shelves of various stores. It's called Sell Me A Sasquatch .

This being Planet Money 's game, Sell Me A Sasquatch is, of course, inspired by economics. But it is designed to be played by everyone (ages 10 and up) — not just econ nerds.

But if you are an econ nerd — or are econ-nerd curious — today's newsletter is for you. This is your field guide to the economic ideas that inspired the game, along with some of the references, Easter eggs, and inside jokes we snuck in along the way.

First of all, the entire game of Sell Me A Sasquatch is loosely inspired by a famous economics paper, "The Market for Lemons," which was published in 1970 by George Akerlof. Akerlof later won the Nobel Prize in economics largely for this revolutionary work. (George, if you are reading this, please get in touch. We'd love to play the game with you!)

The paper uses the market for used cars to show why good information is critical for a healthy marketplace. In particular, it explores what can happen when sellers know much more than buyers — a situation economists call "asymmetric information."

Imagine you're shopping for a used car. Some are fantastic. Others are total lemons (an old-timey way of saying a piece of junk). The problem Akerlof shines a spotlight on is that buyers will have a hard time telling which is which. Because buyers can't reliably tell the gems from the lemons, they're reluctant to pay top dollar for any used car. It's too risky, so they demand a markdown.