Using Short Movie and Television Clips in the Economics Principles ...

Using Short Movie and TelevisionClips in the EconomicsPrinciples Class

Robert L. Sexton

Abstract: The author describes a teaching method that uses powerful contempo-rary media, movie and television clips, to demonstrate the enormous breadth anddepth of economic concepts. Many different movie and television clips can beused to show the power of economic analysis. The author describes the scenesand the economic concepts within those scenes for a number of movies.

Key words: economic education, teachingJEL code: A22

Empirical work suggests that most economists rely exclusively on lecturing inthe classroom (Becker and Watts 1996; Becker 1997). In some other fields ofhigher education, class discussion and other forms of active learning have supple-mented the exclusive lecturing method (Sax et al. 1996). Although instructorscould incorporate movies, novels, videos, mock hearings, and radio broadcastsinto an instruction menu, typically they do not (Siegfried et al. 1991). The cost ofusing conventional chalk and talk, rather than more contemporary outcome-basedmethods, may be significant in the long run as students choose to move away fromeconomics and into the more lively and interesting classes (Becker and Watts2001). According to McKeachie (1969), students will learn what they want to learnand will have great difficulty in learning material in which they are not interested.

Some economists have adopted teaching techniques that deviate from the purelecture method but most are slow to change (Becker and Watts 1996). Others havecreated unique courses-teaching economic principles using classic films (Leetand Houser 2003). Others have created unique books. Watts (2003) brought liter-ature and economics together in his book, The Literary Book of Economics. Butmore can be done.

I teach a large lecture class in economic principles with 150-200 students persemester. One method I have used for years, to break up the monotony of a straightlecture, is to incorporate video clips. The video clips (usually 3-5 minutes inlength) highlight particular economic principles. I have edited clips for over30 economic concepts and scatter these clips throughout the semester to help

Robert L. Sexton is a professor of economics at Pepperdine University (e-mail: [email protected]). The author acknowledges the helpful comments of Bob Escudero, Gary Galles,Philip Graves, Steven Rouse, and three anonymous reviewers and Michael Watts and WilliamBecker for their encouragement. Copyright © 2006 Heldref Publications

JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC EDUCATION406

students keep their interest and retain information. Students are also required towrite a brief paper, explaining the economic content of a particular scene in amovie. They soon realize there is economic content in every movie and that theeconomic way of thinking is entrenched in their everyday lives. In addition, thisassignment leads to new movie ideas from the students to add to or substitute intomy existing film library. The most consistent remark on my student evaluations,with regard to the movie clips, is, "I can't see a movie anymore without lookingfor the economic content."

According to learning theorists, imagery is important for learning andremembering. In fact, imagery (visual encoding) is at the very heart of manymemory aids (Myers 2004). Video clips provide visual stimuli to reinforce valu-able concepts and ideas. Because information is often stored in visual form, pic-tures and movie clips may be very important in helping students retainimportant ideas and retrieve them from their long-term memory. Because of thestrong effects of visual stimuli, I have included a number of pictures (visualcues) with rich captions to create a welcoming and brain-friendly environmentin my economics principles text (Sexton 2005). "Retention depends on howwell students understand.. .Understanding, in turn, depends on organizing thismaterial into a personally meaningful form. This integrating process is themeans by which knowledge is stored in memory to become accessible later"(Ericksen 1984). Well-selected movie and television clips that integrate eco-nomic concepts with everyday life may provide a concrete framework for stu-dents to retaining concepts.

I provide here a sample of films I use in class and identify the scenes and theireconomic content.

THE CONCEPTS AND FILMS

Concept: Ceteris Paribus; Film: For the Love of the Game (1999)

In this movie, Billy Chapel (Kevin Costner), an aging major league baseballpitcher is pitching in his last game. The scene begins with his team, the DetroitTigers, playing the New York Yankees. It is an away game and Chapel is beingheckled: "Hey Chapel, you stink"; another yells, "You're done." To concentrate,Billy repeats the phrase "clear the mechanism." When he repeats this phrase, itallows Chapel to clear out all the outside noise-it is now just Chapel and thecatcher. I tell my students that we need to do this in our economic modeling-thatthere is sometimes noise that gets in the way of seeing the relationship betweenkey economic variables. This is why we use the ceteris paribus condition to holdthese other variables constant to focus on the relationship between variables, suchas price and quantity demanded.

Concept: Incentives Matter; Film: Captain Ron (1992)

Martin Harvey (Martin Short), his wife, Katherine Harvey (Mary Kay Place),and their children decide to take an extended vacation from their frantic life in

407Fall 2006

Chicago to sail an inherited boat from a remote Caribbean island to Miami, wherethey plan to sell it. However, they need to hire someone to sail their boat-so theyhire Captain Ron (Kurt Russell). The scene begins when they are checking out theengine, and they notice that it was losing considerable amounts of oil on a dailybasis. Martin Short's son, Ben, says he would like to check the oil every day, butCaptain Ron tells him the job is too important and that his Dad should do it. Benobjects. Captain Ron says, "Hey swab. C'mere. Listen up. Now, the way it worksshipboard is, you do your job. You do it good, you get a better job. Maybe you getpromoted from swab to mate." Captain Ron tells Martin Harvey, "Sort've anincentive kind of a deal, hub? Yeah, incentives are important. I learned that inrehab." Because almost all of economics can be reduced to incentive stories, thisis a fun clip to begin the discussion of the importance of incentives, both positiveand negative.

Concept: Tradeoffs; Film: Rudy (1992)

Rudy (Sean Astin) has his heart set on one goal; he wants to play football atNotre Dame. Rudy is small and has little raw talent, but he is driven by his heartand conviction. His father and brother, who work in the steel mills, think he iscrazy for pursuing his dream. This clip is filled with choices and tradeoffs thatRudy faces-whether to go to college or work in the steel mills, whether to go tothe junior college to get the grades to get into Notre Dame or just give up on thedream, whether to quit the team, whether to go back to the team. Students learnvery quickly that choices, costs, and tradeoffs are everywhere. Many films candemonstrate choice and costs, but this one seems to be a student favorite.

Concept: Opportunity Cost; Film: Space Jam (1996)

There is a scene in this movie that shows Michael Jordan after he left theChicago Bulls as a basketball player to pursue playing professional baseball forthe Chicago White Sox organization. The opposing catcher is tipping Michael offon the pitches and Michael strikes out anyway-the catcher says, "Oh, well-nice talking with you." This is a great introduction into my discussion of oppor-tunity cost. I ask my students: How much did it cost Michael Jordan to quitprofessional basketball and play professional baseball for the year? I am carefulnot to say it was the wrong decision-just a costly one.

Concept: Exchange; Film: Shawshank Redemption (1994)

The scene is when Andy (Tim Robbins) meets Red (Morgan Freeman) in theprison yard and asks him if he could get him a rock hammer. Red says, "Whatdoes an item like this go for?" Andy says, "$7 at any rock and gem shop." Redsays, "This is a specialty item-risk goes up-price goes up. Make it an even$10." Andy agrees. The scene continues and shows how the rock hammer issmuggled in through the laundry and then through the prison book distributionprogram. And all along the way, cigarettes are used for payment to those involved


in the transaction. It is a nice example of exchange and can also be used todemonstrate barter-trading cigarettes for services.

Concept: Resource Allocation; Film: Castaway (2000)

When Chuck Noland's (Tom Hanks) plane crashes and he finds himself on adeserted island, he has to find a way to survive. On the island, he must findanswers to the what, how, and for whom questions. The for whom question ispretty easy because he is the only one on the island-he gets what is produced.The what question is pretty easy, too-because he is trying to survive, he is look-ing to produce food, shelter, and clothing. The how question is where this scenebecomes interesting. Chuck has salvaged several boxes from the plane crash.After a failed attempt to leave the island, he decides to open the boxes to see ifthere is anything useful. He first finds a pair of ice skates. He uses the blades ofthe ice skates as a knife: to open coconuts, to cut and convert a dress into a fish-ing net, and to sharpen a stick to use as a spear for catching fish. He uses the lacesfrom the skates and the bubble wrap in the package to dress an injury he incurredon the island. He uses the raft as a lean-to for his shelter. He builds a fire and even"makes" a friend with a volleyball-Wilson. This film provides a nice introduc-tion to the classic island economy, where Chuck must use his entrepreneurial tal-ents to make the best use of the scarce resources on the island.

Concept: Tastes and Demand Shifts; Film: Hudsucker Proxy (1994)

The scene starts with the owner of a toy store trying unsuccessfully to sell anew product-a hula hoop. In the store window, he puts up the price of the hulahoops with a sticker. The scene shows him waiting and waiting with no customersand then he starts to lower his price from $1.79 to $1.59 and eventually all theway down to "free with any purchase." He becomes so disgusted that he throwsa number of hula hoops out the door and they roll into an alley. One rolls out ontothe street, where a young boy (Arthur Bridgers) picks it up. He is a natural. In themeantime, the school down the street lets out and about 30 kids gather around inastonishment, watching the young boy swing the hula hoop-around his hips,ankles, and neck. You then see the students attack the store in droves to buy hulahoops, and the sticker price zooms up to $3.99. This is a good example to showthe importance of taste as a demand shifter and the comparative statics of demandshifts.

Concept: Shortage; Film: Jingle All the Way (1996)

In this film, mattress salesman Howard Langston (Arnold Schwarzenegger)asks his son Jamie if there is anything he wants for Christmas. His son, Jamie(Jake Lloyd) says, "I want the Turbo Man action figure with the arms and legsthat move and the boomerang shooter and his rock'n roller jet pack and the real-istic voice activator that says 5 different phrases including, 'It's Turbo time!'Accessories sold separately. Batteries not included." Howard soon realizes it is

Fall 2006 409

the hottest toy in years, and there is no Turbo Man available anywhere. Howardand a stressed-out mailman, Myron Larabee (Sinbad), are both trying to find theTurbo Man on Christmas Eve. As Howard and the mailman start their frenziedquest to find Turbo Man, the toy clerk tells Howard, "It's only the hottest sellingChristmas toy ever-duh!" This scene provides a fun introduction to shortages.You can also talk about differences between anticipated and actual demand andthe eventual adjustment process. Or, in more advanced classes, it can lead to a dis-cussion of bandwagon effects and positive network externalities.

Concept: Elasticity; Film: Forrest Gump (1994)

The scene begins with the "great" storm. Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks) said,"Lieutenant Dan-he was mad." "You call this a storm. It's time for a showdown;just you and me. You'll never sink this ship," said Lieutenant Dan (Gary Sinise).The scene cuts to the local news station: "Hurricane Carmen came through hereyesterday, destroying nearly everything in its path." Actually, only one boat sur-vived the storm. That was Forrest Gump's shrimp boat and that was the beginningof the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company. This is a good clip to show students theimpact of a supply shift-the devastating storm-on total revenue of firms thatstill remain in an industry. I ask the students: If the demand for shrimp is rela-tively inelastic, and most of the shrimp boats are destroyed, would the total rev-enue of the shrimp industry increase or decrease?

Concept: Diminishing Marginal Utility; Film: The Great Outdoors (1988)

Chet (John Candy) and Roman (Dan Aykroyd) converge upon a lakeside resortfor a summer of relaxation. The scene begins in Paul Bunyan's restaurant, thehome of the "Famous 96er." If anyone can finish a whole 96-ounce steak, thaneveryone in the party eats free of charge. Chet (Candy) decides to give it a try. Heeats all but the fat and the very large chef tells him he is not finished. Candy pre-sumably finishes off the rest. Roman (Aykroyd) asks the waitress, "If we can geta couple of desserts down him would you be willing to throw in a couple of PaulBunyan hats for the kids?" At the end of this scene, Chet is in a lot of discomfort,leaving the restaurant with Paul Bunyan hats. This movie is a good starter for thediscussion on diminishing marginal utility-especially because Chet is requiredto finish his steak in a specified period of time.

Concept: Consumer and Producer Surplus; Film: Pretty Woman (1990)

The movie is about Edward Lewis (Richard Gere), a successful corporatemogul who meets an energetic, carefree woman-Vivian Ward (Julia Roberts).The scene begins with Vivian taking a bubble bath and then Edward walks in andsays, "Vivian, I have a business proposition for you. I would like you to spend theweek with me... I would like to hire you as an employee." Vivian says, "24 hours

a day; it's going to cost you." "How much?" says Edward. Vivian says, "Six fullnights, and days too-$4,000." Edward then counters with $2,000, and Vivian


says $3,000, and Edward says, "Done." Then Vivian says, "I would have stayedfor $2,000" and Edward says "I would have paid you $4,000." I ask the class:How much consumer surplus is Edward receiving if he was willing to pay $4,000but only pays $3,000, and how much producer surplus is Vivian receiving if sheis willing to stay for $2,000 but receives $3,000?

Concept: Externalities and Regulation; DVD: The Simpsons, "Two Carsin Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish" (1990)

The scene begins with Bart and Lisa fishing at the local fishing hole inSpringfield, not far from the nuclear plant. An investigative reporter stops to seehow they are doing. A couple minutes later, Bart catches a three-eyed fish. Thenews moves fast. The next morning, the newspaper headlines read: "MutationCaught at O' Fishin Hole," "Fishing Hole or Fission Hole," and "Governor Callsfor Power Plant Investigation." The government inspection team visits the plantand finds their Geiger counters very active-Mr. Burns, owner of the companyand Homer Simpson's boss, says, "That must just be normal background noise."The investigation team also notices gum used to seal a crack in the cooling unitand a plutonium rod being used as a paper weight. The inspectors find 342 viola-tions and tell Mr. Burns that he will have to bring it up to code or shut it down.Mr. Bums then tries to bribe the government officials as he leaves the room say-ing, "Look, a careless person has left a pile of money on the table and when Icome back, hopefully it will be gone." This is a very popular lecture opener fordiscussing externalities and regulation.

Concept: Costs of Production; Film: Castaway (2000)

In this scene, Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks), a Federal Express efficiencyexpert, is in Moscow talldng to his employees at the Fed Ex office about theimportance of working hard and keeping track of time. Noland says, "Time rulesover us without mercy.. .like a fire it can either destroy us or keep uswarm.. .Every Fed Ex office has a clock because we live or die by the clock."Noland sends himself a package from Memphis, Tennessee. It is a clock, and heopens it and says this is an outrage "it took 87 hours and 22 minutes for thisclock to travel from Memphis, Tennessee, to Moscow, Russia. What if this wasa paycheck, or adoption papers? Eighty-seven hours is an eternity." You mightask students what type of incentive Fed Ex could use to get greater productivityout of their workers? Negative incentives? Positive incentives? Do you think cul-ture makes a difference?

Concept: Patents and Monopoly Power; Film: The Jerk (1979)

The scene begins with Nathan R. Johnson (Steve Martin) working in a gas sta-tion and a customer, Stan Fox (Bill Macy), comes in complaining about hisglasses that keep slipping from his nose. Martin says, "I can fix those glasses,"and he goes into the garage bay and solders a metal piece onto the frame of the

Fall 2006 411

glasses to prevent slippage. The man leaves the gas station and receives a patentfor the glasses. The glasses become a huge success, and Nathan Johnson is con-tacted to pick up his check for his share of the money from the "opti-grabber."Everything is fine until Carl Reiner, a movie director, finds that the glasses havecaused him to be cross-eyed and as a result people on the sets of his movies havedied. Reiner heads up a class action suit against Nathan R. Johnson and wins-arags, to riches, to rags story. However, it is a nice introduction to monopoly prof-its and losses-that even if you have a patent, it does not guarantee that you willalways have a profit.

Concept: Property Rights; Film: Tombstone (1993)

The trailer to Tombstone, demonstrates the hardships and difficulty of living ina world where there was a lack of a central authority to assign and enforce prop-erty rights. The scene begins with the narrator stating that, "Murder rates werehigher than modem day New York or Los Angeles... the earliest example oforganized crime was the cowboy." Virgil Earp (Sam Elliott) says to Wyatt Earp(Kurt Russell), "If we are going to have a future in this town, we are going to haveto have law and order." Later in the clip, the dialogue returns to the topic of lawand order in the saloon over poker. Ike Clanton says to Wyatt Earp, "Mr. Kansaslaw dog. Laws don't go around here. Savvy?" Wyatt Earp responds, "I'm retired."Curly Bills says, "That's real good." Ike Clanton concurs, "Yeah, that's good, Mr.Law Dog, 'cause law don't go around here." Earp says, "I heard you the firsttime." Silver strikes were making men rich and attracting people to Tombstone.The town was only a few months old, but it was already full of outlaws. The law-men and the outlaws were always at odds. Many problems on the frontier cen-tered on ownership: who owned the cattle, the water, and the land? This scene canlead to some interesting classroom conversations about life on the frontier. Whatimpact did barbed wire have on the West? What led to range wars? Why was it sodifficult to enforce property rights in these small towns?

Concept: Inflation; Film: Austin Powers (1992)

In this scene, Dr. Evil (Mike Myers) is meeting with Number Two (RobertWagner) and the rest of the board of Virtucom. Dr. Evil, who has been frozen for30 years, has no idea how much inflation has occurred over that time span. Hesays, "I have a plan. Its called blackmail.. .we get the warheads, and we hold thewhole world hostage for ONE million dollars!" Number Two says, "Don't youthink you should ask for more than a million dollars? A million dollars isn'texactly a lot of money any more."

Concept: Regulation; Film: Zoolander (2001)

The scene begins with Derek Zoolander (Ben Stiller) leaving his job as a malemodel to bond with his family, who are coal miners. He tells his father andbrother that he wants to be a miner. His father, Larry Zoolander (Jon Voight) says,


"You wouldn't last a day." Derek says, "Give me a chance, Pop." Derek worksone day in the coal mines, and it does not work out well. Among other things,Derek thinks he is coming down with black lung disease. Derek says, "It's notvery well ventilated down there." His father says "Derek, you've been down thereone day. Talk to me in 30 years." This is a good opener to a discussion of theOccupational Health and Safety Administration and regulation.

Concept: Fractional Reserve Banking; Film: It's a Wonderful Life (1946)

This is a classic film with a great scene that demonstrates the power of the frac-tional reserve banking system. George Bailey (James Stewart) tells his clients,"You're thinking of this place all wrong; as if I had the money back here in a safe.Your money is not here. Your money is in Joe's house, right next to yours, and inthe Kennedy's house and Mrs. Mayplin's and hundreds of others."

Other Films and Concepts

For those interested in using movie clips to pique interest in their economicsclasses, I have included additional concepts, scenes, and movie or television clipsin Table 1. The diversity of the clips demonstrates the true breadth of economics.

THE LEGAL ISSUES

The Federal Copyright Act (Title 17, United States Code, Public Law 94-553,90 stat. 2541) generally prohibits a public performance of a movie, or even a shortsegment of a movie, without receiving prior licensing. A public performance isdefined as a viewing of a copyright-protected work by a substantial number ofpeople outside of a normal gathering of friends or family members. Clearly,showing a segment of a movie in a classroom would constitute a "public per-formance." However, "fair-use" exemptions are provided, allowing performancesto take place without prior licensing if specific criteria are met (Rouse 2005).

Simpson (2001) and Talab (1999) provide valuable explanations of the detailsof this fair-use exemption. An educational exemption applies if (1) the teacher ora student is showing the movie; (2) the viewing is taking place in the context ofa face-to-face educational curriculum; (3) the viewing is taking place in a stan-dard place of instruction, like a classroom; and (4) the viewing is of a legallyacquired copy of the movie (that is, purchased, rented, or checked out from alibrary but not illegally copied). Although the use of films as described in the pre-ceding pages would appear to satisfy these requirements, instructors might wantto consult a legal representative from their institution before showing movie clipsas a part of their classroom presentation.

CONCLUSION

Many introductory economics textbook authors state that a benefit from thecourse is to better understand human behavior. It is a very valuable lesson that

Fall 2006 413

Soo• o o'

c 0

bp > ~ 0 to

Lý C r, - oR 10,U) 000 0

4ý 0

0

o 0.

0

o•

U) U)

., -o -- •-,•0

Z .3 ~-~ ~ 0) cn

o ~ (~C ~ ~ ~ 0) 0rs

7z 0(~pe

?0, 0 Q r.0 0 c

Po 0 4.3Ln ) V 0C


0

'D0 0 1)

.0 - D

u 0 0 b 42

'0,

-zj 3 0 bu4

.0 - 0~ ~ (4 .0o 4) ' C.

cn to -- :i.0 * 4 ~ 4 0

Q) C4

oýztJ3~, -,-j

o~ co44 ou~oo

4.

0 =

0 0U)4 :5 CE -' 3 3,

Fall 2006

415

Fall 2006 415

0

00

~Q

ca

Z2

. Z2

4-4-0 DO


instructors can get across more strongly if they can show students how econom-ics is relevant to virtually every aspect of their everyday lives-even a trip to themovies. Movie clips can vividly illustrate economic issues and supplement thereal-life examples that instructors present in the classroom. They can be used tospark discussion, to help students remember certain concepts, or to just make theclass more fun, so students will look forward to attending the next class. Ofcourse, some movies will not be totally accurate but that too can provide a spring-board for discussion.

REFERENCES

Becker, W. E. 1997. Teaching economics to undergraduates. Journal of Economics Literature 35(September): 1347-73.

Becker, W. E., and M. Watts. 1996. Chalk and talk: A national survey on teaching undergraduates eco-nomics. American Economic Review 86 (May): 448-53.

Becker, W. E., and M. Watts. 2001. Teaching economics at the start of the 21st century: Still chalk-and-talk. American Economic Review 96 (May): 446-51.

Ericksen, S. C. 1984. The essence of good teaching: Helping students learn and remember what theylearn. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.

Leet, D., and S. Houser. 2003. Economics goes to Hollywood: Using classic films and documentariesto create an undergraduate economics course. Journal of Economic Education 34 (Fall): 326-32.

McKeachie, W. J. 1969. Teaching tips: A guidebook for the beginning college teacher. 6th ed. Boston:Heath.

Myers, D. G. 2004. Psychology. 7th ed. New York: Worth.Rouse, S. 2005. Movies as illustration for introductory psychology. Upper Saddle River, NJ:

Pearson/Prentice-Hall.Sax, L., A. Astin, M. Arredondo, and W. Korn. 1996. The American college teacher: National norms

for the 1995-96 HERI faculty survey. Los Angeles: Higher Education Research Institution,University of California-Los Angeles.

Siegfried, J., R. Bartlett, W. L. Hansen, A. Kelley, D. McCloskey, and T. Tietenberg. 1991. The statusand prospects of economics majors. Journal of Economic Education 22 (Summer): 197-224.

Sexton, R. L. 2005. Exploring economics. 3rd ed. Mason, OH: Thomson South-Western.Simpson, C. M. 2001. Copyright for schools: A practical guide. New York: Linworth.Talab, R. 1999. Commonsense copyright: A guide for educators and librarians. New York:

McFarland.Watts, M. 2003. The literary book of economics. Wilmington, DE: ISI.

Fall 2006 417

COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

TITLE: Using Short Movie and Television Clips in theEconomics Principles Clas

SOURCE: The Journal of Economic Education 37 no4 Fall 2006PAGE(S): 406-17

WN: 0628802432005

The magazine publisher is the copyright holder of this article and itis reproduced with permission. Further reproduction of this article inviolation of the copyright is prohibited. To contact the publisher:http://www.heldref.org/

Copyright 1982-2006 The H.W. Wilson Company. All rights reserved.

Using Short Movie and Television Clips in the Economics Principles ...

Documents

Transcript of Using Short Movie and Television Clips in the Economics Principles ...