The Chicken Vs Egg Economics

Over the years, countless number of people have been interested in finding out the answer to the question- “which came first - egg or chicken?” The chicken-or-egg dilemma has intrigued scholars and thinkers across various fields for centuries, like philosophers such as Aristotle and Plutarch, scientists such as Charles Darwin, theologians, and economists, each of them offering unique perspectives based on their fields of study.

In the field of philosophy, Aristotle has been a prominent thinker. He was an ancient Greek philosopher and polymath, and his theories are still read all around the globe. He believed that everything around us is made up of both matter (the stuff things are made of) and form (the shape or design that makes something what it is). According to him, there must be a first cause that starts everything without being caused by anything else, kind of like the ultimate cause of all the changes in the universe. He called this the "Unmoved Mover."

Aristotle had a simple yet interesting way to think about this classic question: "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?" According to his theory of Unmoved Mover, a chicken, which already has the form of a chicken, must have existed first to lay an egg that could eventually hatch into another chicken as in a chicken had to exist first to produce an egg. This is because he believed the "actual" (the chicken) had to come before the "potential" (the egg that can become a chicken). (Chicken-1 , Egg-0).

They say every coin has two sides. There are always going to be various opinions. Different stories. Biased views. Just like one by Plutarch, where he leaned more towards the idea that the egg came first as a primary element of life. To know a bit more about the context and history, Plutarch was a Greek philosopher who believed that a good conversation is one that is a mix of fun and learning. He thought that when people come together to talk, especially during a meal, they should discuss things that are both interesting and useful, as it makes the gathering more enjoyable. Is that why he discussed the idea of chicken vs. egg during a nice, hearty meal??!!

In his work "Symposiacs," Plutarch explored various interesting and sometimes quirky topics in the form of a series of dialogues and discussions on a wide range of subjects blending philosophy, science, and our everyday lives. The question of chicken vs. egg is not just about biological curiosity but also about how we view and understand things, the concept of casuality, and the nature of beginnings, it’s about cause and effect.

Plutarch believed that nature didn’t just randomly create things; instead, everything had a reason or a cause behind it. There is a cause that causes an effect. When it comes to the chicken and the egg, he proposed that the first chicken must have come from an egg. The egg came first because it was from that egg that the very first chicken hatched, starting a long line of chickens that followed (cause and effect). That egg, in turn, came from a bird that was almost a chicken, but not exactly chicken, since they didn't exactly exist at that time. This means that before there were the true chickens that we know now, there were birds that laid eggs that eventually led to the chickens as we know them. Complicated, I see (Chicken-1 , Egg-1).

See, I understand if you don’t get philosophical thinkers. I don’t, either. Don’t worry, we have another lifeline: Phone A Friend, since the 50:50 one clearly didn’t work. To solve this mystery, we are phoning our friend, Walter N. Thurman, a researcher at North Carolina State University, who approached this question by analyzing the poultry and egg markets. (Here comes economics, yay!)

In economics, this question "What came first, the chicken or the egg?" isn't only about chickens and eggs. It's more about how one thing causes another thing to happen, and then that thing can cause the first thing to change again (please don’t think, “Eshika, I might cry today”, It gets better, I promise). The economic analogy of "What came first, the chicken or the egg?" revolves around the concept of causality and feedback loops in economic systems, and particularly in agricultural economics, it basically means figuring out what causes what.

Thurman investigated how initial conditions or innovations can spark a chain reaction in the poultry market. This means that he analyzed demand and supply (finally something we understand, right?!). If people start buying more eggs, farmers will have to raise more chickens to produce more eggs. But then, due to raising more chickens, which means having more chickens might also cause there to be more eggs available. So, which came first—the demand for eggs or the supply of chickens? (It didn’t get any better, godsake!). In other words, neither the chicken nor the egg necessarily precedes the other in a strict linear fashion, but their development is rather interdependent and influenced by various factors within the economic environment. (Chicken- d(e^x)/dx , Egg- ∫e^x). (Let’s be generous!)

Well, if you insist me on giving you a conclusion, I would say - “please refer to the thumbnail and subscribe :)” but have you ever thought about this question after 6th grade or is it just me?