Supply and Demand, the Law of One Price, Price Searching: Alan is ashamed that he can't afford to buyLyndsey a birthday present, so he gets creative and starts selling
massages in the local mall. He discovers that his price is too high
and encounters stiff competition.
Arbitrage: In this example Dwight exploits an arbitrage opportunity. He buys Andy’s car at a low price and then sells it at a much higher price. In efficient markets consumers or firms will look to exploit these opportunities until they no longer exist.DVD Location: Season Four, "Did I Stutter", 6:30-7:40 and 13:51-14:40Contributed by Dan Kuester (Kansas State)
Black Market Goods and Shortage: A leader of a special interest group uses her political ties to shut down the restaurant where SpongeBob works. The restaurant owner then uses SpongeBob’s house to start selling his food again illegally.
DVD Location: Season 5, "Banned in Bikini Bottom", Volume 2, Disc 2.
(Contributed by Frank Benavides.)
Incentives; monopoly power; prohibition and black markets: Springfield rediscovers an old prohibition law opening up black market opportunities for Homer and Bart.
DVD Location: Season 8, "Homer versus the 18th Amendment", 4:24-5:40, 5:53-7:05, 9:36-12:27, and 13:00-13:47
Diminishing marginal utility: Bart says that he loves his mom, but doesn't need to see her every day.
DVD Location: Season 8, "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochy Show", 1:10-1:37
Moral Hazard: Homer attempts to gain a large amount of weight in order to claim disability pay/insurance.
DVD Location: Season 7, Episode 7: 0:30-3:20
Monopoly power, substitutes: Mr. Burns tries to eliminate all substitutes for electrical power by blocking out the sun.
DVD Location: Season 6, "Who Shot Mr. Burns (Part I)"
Marginal cost, marginal revenue, pricing strategy, law of demand: Bart wins an elephant in a local radio contest, but Homer discovers that having an elephant can be quite costly - even if he earns revenue from selling rides to the folks in Springfield.
DVD Location: Season 5, "Bart Gets an Elephant", 11:46-13:46
Diminishing marginal utility: Homer goes to an all-you-can-eat seafood buffet.
DVD Location: Season 4, "New Kid on the Block", 8:24-8:49 and 9:21-9:55
Demand Elasticity: Homer forgets to buy Marge a Valentine's Day gift until the last minute, so his demand is almost perfectly inelastic. He ends up paying Apu $100 for a box of chocolates.
DVD Location: Season 4, episode 3. 02:26-04:02
Game theory, strategic thinking: Lisa knows that Bart will always choose "Rock" when playing rock-paper-scissors.
DVD Location: Season 4, "The Front", 4:33-5:40
Private Property Rights, Tragedy of the Commons, and Negative Externalities: Bart and Lisa catch a three eyed fish while fishing in a public property lake being polluted by a nuclear power plant.
DVD Location: Season 2, Episode 4: 1:40-2:40
Incentives, monopoly power
DVD Location: Season 2, "Homer versus Lisa and the 8th Commandment"
Private Property Rights: Lisa protests the logging of a forest.
DVD Location: Season 12, Episode 4
Diminishing Marginal Utility: Homer is in a steak-eating competition.
DVD Location: Season 10, Episode 17
Oscar delivers news to Michael that the office has a surplus of $4,300 that is must spend immediately or risk losing it.
DVD Location: Season 5, episode 9. 00:00-01:30
Supply and demand: Dwight buys all of the season's hottest gift, "Princess Unicorn" doll, from local stores and then charges desperate parents $200 for the doll.
DVD Location: Season 5, episode 10. 02:30-03:35, 05:18-05:30 and 15:25-17:00
Fixed and variable costs: Michael Scott starts his own paper company and manages to take away a good deal of business from Dunder Mifflin. However, the pricing model is unsustainable because he has failed to fully appreciate the difference between fixed and variable costs.
DVD Location: Season 5, "Broke", 06:06-07:23
Public Goods and Free-Riding: Dunder Mifflin purchases a fireworks display which is then used as a backdrop for marriage proposals.
DVD Location: Season 4, "Goodbye Toby", 14:30-15:10 & 35:14-38:47
Functions of money and currency debasement: Dwight Shrute creates his own currency.
DVD Location: Season 3, disk 4. 24:50-25:25 and then in the bonus material (07:10-09:10)
Deadweight loss of gift giving: The Office staff set up a Secret Santa exchange but Michael turns it into Yankee Swap. Great way of introducing the idea of the deadweight loss of gift giving (see Waldfogel, AER, 1993).
DVD Location: Season 2, "Christmas Party", 06:07-13:47
Incentives Surrounding the welfare system, poverty: Squidard quits his job and then begins to mooch off of SpongeBob.
DVD Location: Season 3, Episode 5
Changes in demand, changes in market size and the availability of substitutes: Mr. Krabby adjusts the price of Kiddie Meals when the children are released from school and based on the availability of the playground.
DVD Location: Season 3, Episode 20: 1:28-1:53
Factors of production: SpongeBob illustrates each of the factors of production as he sets up Pretty Patty production.
DVD Location: Season 2, Episode 7: Starting at 11:43
Unlimited Liability: Pretty Patties cause customers' tongues and mouths to turn colors and the new sole proprietor is held responsible.
DVD Location: Season 2, Episode 7
Monopoly and barriers to entry: Wonderful spoof of Wal-mart.
DVD Location: Season 8, episode 9, 01:00-06:20
Competition, market power: A national coffee company (Harbucks) moves into town, creating dire effects on local enterprises.
DVD Location: Season 2, "Gnomes"
Principle of substitution: Butters' decides to sell hugs for $2 when he discovers that not everyone can afford kisses at the Kissing Booth for $5.
DVD Location: Season 13, episode 9.
Law of Supply and Elasticity of Demand: When the price of soda at TJ's school increases, TJ goes into business selling his brand of soda. Even as he must raise his price, the quantity demanded for his soda remains constant.
DVD Location: Season 3, Episode 49.
Supply and demand: Charlotte has a fetish for shoes.
DVD Location: Season 2, episode 24.
Market power; barriers to entry; price discrimination: Customers are willing to put up with the quirks of a grumpy soup maker because he sells such a unique product until Elaine discovers his recipes.
DVD Location: Season 7, "The Soup Nazi", 1:19-2:03, 2:54-4:17, 6:47-8:52, 13:48-14:54, 16:45-17:31, 18:03-18:38, 19:33-20:27, and 21:21-22:14
Purchasing power and real income effect: The scene showcases the effects of the financial crisis, real estate bubble and recession on the people in the show.
DVD Location: Season 5, episode 1. 07:10-08:45
Supply/Demand, profit, black markets, elasticity of demand: Sam buys several items from the vending machine at $0.50 and sticks her chewed piece of gum on the coin slot, forcing the next student who wishes to use the vending machine to buy from her instead of the machine. Sam then raises the price to $2. The next student pays $2 for the bag of chips as he has no other option other than to not buy a snack at all -- illustrating relatively inelastic demand. Sam explains to Jamie that the profit is $1.50.
DVD Location: Season 6, disk 3, episode 9. 16:41-17:48
Diminishing marginal utility: Adam Richman, the show's host, travels the country engaging in unusual food eating contests.
DVD Location: Season 1, episode 2.
Common Property: A group of plane crash victims on an island consume too much of their community water supply.
DVD Location: Season 1, "White Rabbit", Epidode 5
Moral Hazard: Bobby comes to the realization that if something breaks, one must only file an insurance claim in order to get a new one.
DVD Location: Season 9, "Mutual of OmAbwah", episode 8
Rationality: Arthur is not happy with his new deodorant so he asks Doug to send it back for him. Unbeknownst to Arthur, Doug throws it away. Arthur makes several calls to the deodorant company about his refund, eventually deciding to fly to corporate headquarters to deal with the company who he thinks is not honoring its guarantee.
DVD Location: Season 1, "Richie's Song",
3:35-4:10, 5:51-6:46, 11:08-12:00, 16:18-16:45, and 20:35-21:10
Externalities; Coase theorem: Doug's neighbor has a dog whose barking annoys Doug and Carrie. Doug and his neighbor work out a private solution to the externality problem.
DVD Location: Season 1, "Dog Days", 12:25-16:09
Tastes/preferences; moral hazard: Arthur buys Doug and Carrie a Duzenburg for Christmas. Richie suggests that they leave the car under the overpass so it will get stolen and they can collect the insurance money.
DVD Location: Season 1, "Noel Cowards", 10:44-15:29
Sunk cost: Arthur is upset because he prepaid for a tombstone that reads 19something to 19__; This means if he doesn't die before the end of 1999, he's "screwed".
DVD Location: Season 1, "Train Wreck", 1:56-2:43
Sunk cost: Doug would rather watch the pay-per-view fight than spend Carrie's birthday with her. Richie suggests Doug tell her he has already paid for the movie.
DVD Location: Season 1, "Crappy Birthday", 1:37-3:12
Optimization with a Budget Constraint: Kate grocery shops for her family of 10
DVD Location: Season 1, "Shopping for 10", Episode 6: 4:50-8:20
Perfectly elastic demand: Johnny goes to the store to buy his favorite beef jerky and discovers that the store is closing because a competitor has decided to charge one penny less.
DVD Location: Season 2, "Johnny's Telethon", episode 6. 00:00-07:10
Mac and Dennis try to stimulate the demand at the bar with "Paddy's dollars." However, the free "Paddy's dollars" do not induce the customers to spend their own money at the bar so they suffer a huge loss.
DVD Location: Season 5, "The Great Recession", episode 3. 18:20-19:45
Health care incentives
DVD Location: Season 4, "Sweet Dee Has a Heart Attack", episode 10.
Price Discrimination, inelasticity, monopoly, and business ethics (Great discussion starter!). The Gang suddenly finds that their normally vacant and unprofitable bar overrun with underage drinkers. The Gang exploits the inelastic demand from the underage drinkers by watering down the drinks to make more profit.
DVD Location: Season 1, episode 3.
Changes in Demand (Tastes and Preferences): Carley and Sam advertise Techfoots on their webcast and their classmates increase their purchases of them.
DVD Location: Season 1, Episode 18: 4:20-10:00
Fairness; negotiation: The Ricardos sublet their apartment for an amount greater than they pay the Mertzs. The Mertzs think this is unfair and won't allow the sublease to take place.
DVD Location: Season 3, "The Sublease", 0:31-4:07
Game theory; prisoner's dilemma: The Ricardos and the Mertzs open competing diners and get into a price war.
DVD Location: Season 3, "The Diner", 19:53-21:30
Comparative Advantage and Specialization: Though House has the absolute advantage in running tests and exotic diagnoses, his team has the comparative advantage in running tests. Thus, there are gains from trade as each party specializes.
DVD Location: Season 5, "The Greater Good", Episode 14