懂经济学的应招女郎

Some argue that such no-strings transactions are ultimately less harmful to both career and marriage than taking a mistress. The men at the airport lounge also pointed out that the premium buys discretion. But at these prices, it is difficult to avoid a paper trail. Spitzer spent more than $80,000 on high-end prostitutes in one year. That\'s a lot of bank withdrawals.

在Spitzer先生光顾的这个服务供应商的网页上（自丑闻后已关闭），陪护女郎按不同的钻石等级排列；级别越高价钱越贵。假设这些女郎看上去都同样漂亮，而且作出了类似的承诺，我忍不住会想，什么因素决定了她们的价格。一位同事有过为客户安排“小姐”的经验（他以前在一间名声不太好的私人证券公司工作），他解释说，更高的价钱通常意味着这个女人“多才多艺”（也就是说，愿意提供更多的服务），或者只是更受欢迎，更有经验。之前，我一直的印象就是这个工作完全不需要资历。他说，这只是女人的想法。随即马上否认他自己找过电召女郎。

On the website of the service Mr Spitzer patronised (which has since been disabled), escorts were ranked with twinkly diamond ratings; higher rankings demanded a higher price. Given that the women all looked equally beautiful and delivered similar promises, I couldn\'t help but wonder what gave them their value. A colleague with some experience arranging escorts for clients (when he worked at a rather nefarious-sounding private-equity firm) explained that a higher price often meant that a woman was either especially talented and versatile (ie, would provide a wider range of services), or simply more popular and experienced. I had been under the impression that this was a job in which seniority was undesirable. It depends on the woman, he said, just before emphatically denying ever using a call girl himself.

综上，高价钱代表着高素质。价格太便宜反而会让想获得高级妓女的男人对商品的价值产生疑问。性服务行业则满足了男人的自恋情结（因此叫做“国王俱乐部VIP”）和他们的幻想，让他们感觉只有购买那些钻石等级高的女人才能配得上自己尊贵非凡的身份。

The supply side:

卖方：

The most obvious reason why high-end prostitutes can charge so much is that they are doing something illegal. Being arrested for prostitution will certainly hinder future earnings prospects in other industries (unless one manages to write a juicy tell-all about the experience; still, how many such books can the market support?). A premium fee is justified by the risks involved in working in an illegal industry, as well as the related stigma of being paid for sex.

高级妓女收费高，最显而易见的原因是因为她们进行的是非法交易。如果因为卖淫被捕，她们将来在其他行业的“钱途”肯定会受到阻碍（除非有人根据相关经历写一部香艳的爆料书；但问题是，市场上对类似的书需求量有多大？）。高额报酬才能抵得上在非法行业工作的风险，也可以补偿因为卖身而惹来的骂名。

In the paper  "A Theory of Prostitution", published in 2006 in the Journal of Political Economy, economists Lena Edlund and Evelyn Korn suggest there is a marriage market explanation behind why prostitutes are so well-paid:

2006年出版的《政治经济学杂志》上，有一篇题为《一条关于性交易的理论》的论文，经济学家Lena Edlund 和 Evelyn Korn认为在解释妓女高收入原因的背后，其实隐藏着一个关于婚姻的交易。