Everyone knows the potential
barriers to the success of long distance relationships, where many result in
dissolution. But with strong communication, trust, transparency, frequent meet
ups, and clear, mutually established expectations, many of them do turn out to
be successful in the long run.
One of the key incentives in long distance relationships might be the increased quality of time spent together in the teeth of lack of frequency. Think of it like this. One of the well known (to economists) effects of trade taxes like import/export tariffs is the Alchian–Allen effect, which says that when a fixed unit price is added to two similar goods of different prices, consumers will sometimes have an incentive to favour the higher priced good. In other words, if the fixed cost is high, the quality will increase too.
Here's an example of why. Suppose you live in the UK and are looking to buy one of the newly designed music systems on the Japanese market. There are two kinds, and they are the only two of their kind in the world - let's call them Model A and Model B. Let's say that in UK currency, Model A is the £150 model, and Model B is the £300 model. Model B is twice the cost of Model A, except for one additional fact - we'll say all Japanese items shipped to the UK come with a supplementary £100 overseas postage cost.
That is to say, to buy Model A will actually cost you £250 and to buy Model B will actually cost you £400. But notice what's happened when we add on the Alchian–Allen effect; if there were no postage costs then Model B (£300) would be double the cost of Model A (£150) - but with the additional £100 postage cost, Model B (£400) is only 1.6 times the cost of Model A (£250) - meaning that when that fixed unit price (£100) is added to the two goods of different prices, we've more chance of favouring the higher priced good because it becomes more worth our while.
The nature of increased consumption of the higher variable cost good occurring when adding a fixed cost to two independent prospects could be creatively applied to long distance relationships too: they are a bit like an equivalent postage cost, because for some couples, the increased effort required in seeing one another might play out in improved quality of time spent together, deepening the mutual bond and connection. If you've travelled from Brighton to Leicester to see your beloved, you are unlikely to sit in and watch Netflix together all weekend – you are likely to want to make the most of every moment spent together.
