PERSONAL HEALTH : A Box of Condoms Is Much Cheaper

We all take our chances with love, knowing the cost can sometimes be pretty high. But who would have guessed that with each act of unprotected sex, a young man risks losing exactly $660?

University of Chicago economist Robert T. Michael came up with that figure last year in a paper he wrote on the increasing demand for men’s contraception.

To get the figure, Michael calculated the probability of conception (.03%); the likelihood of a live birth (.5%); the likelihood that the father would be identified and held responsible for child support (.75%); and how much he would be required to pay over the child’s first 18 years of life (based on 15.9% of an adjusted gross income of $2,000 a month.)