This KAYAK advertisement showcases a person who insists on manually handling tasks, including booking travel, despite acknowledging it’s not the most efficient method. He thinks he can do everything the best (absolute advantage), but fails to recognize that people can be better off when they focus on their comparative advantage instead.
Thanks to John Kruggel for posting this clip on Twitter/X!
In The Sandlot, neighborhood kids play an “endless dream game” all summer long. There are two kids on opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to baseball talent and natural ability. Benny is the superstar on the local sandlot team. He has a clear absolute advantage over all the others in running, hitting, throwing, and catching. On the other hand, Scotty (nicknamed “Smalls”) possesses book smarts but is clueless about baseball. He can’t throw or catch and has little knowledge about baseball in general.
Benny uses his absolute advantage as an opportunity to train Smalls on how to catch and throw. Investing in training uses resources (like time and energy), but has the potential to payoff in the future. It takes Benny and the rest of the team a while, but Smalls eventually becomes a member of the term. Smalls may never have an absolute advantage in catching, but his comparative advantage in catching gets a little better with time.
Thanks to Amanda Mandzik for the clip submission and summary.
In The Sandlot, neighborhood kids play an “endless dream game” all summer long. There are two kids on opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to baseball talent and natural ability. Benny is the superstar on the local sandlot team. He has a clear absolute advantage over all the others in running, hitting, throwing, and catching. On the other hand, this scene demonstrates the skills of Scotty (nicknamed “Smalls”), who is new in town, He possesses book smarts but is clueless about baseball. He can’t throw or catch and has little knowledge about baseball in general.
He’s still a valuable member of the team because Benny can only play one position at a time. While he may have an absolute advantage in all positions over Smalls, there needs to be a division of labor in order to field a team.
Thanks to Amanda Mandzik for the clip submission and summary.
Buddy is a human living in an elf’s world. He finds there are a lot of things he’s not so good at compared to the other elves. Before getting too sad, the other elves point out a lot of things that Buddy is good at compared to them. Even if someone is good at everything, they can still benefit from trading their services with others. Trade is often based on each person’s comparative advantage. For Buddy, that’s changing the batteries in the smoke detector.
Thanks to Mandy Mandzik for the clip recommendation. Check out her working paper, All I Want for Christmas is an A on My Econ Final: A Holiday-Themed Review Class, for more Christmas-themed economics examples.
Gaston is the best man in town, for everything! If you don’t believe that, you can just ask him. In this scene from Beauty and the Beast, LeFou starts a song to help cheer up Gaston after Belle’s rejection. Gaston has an absolute advantage in a wide variety of things)—fighting, spitting, eating a large number of eggs, and even interior decorating. Gaston, however, is a relatively poor chess player. While Gaston is capable of doing everything for himself, it doesn’t mean he should. Gaston can still benefit from trade if he focuses on his comparative advantage.
Thanks to Matt Rousu for the clip!
Appa has made a collection of baked goods but his wife thinks she could do it better. In an earlier scene, Umma damages a friend’s car and made offered to pay for half the cost of repairing the damage. Her husband is disappointed because he feels he could have saved them a lot of money. Umma lets him know that’s why she isn’t a millionaire, but at least she’s a better baker.
Thanks to John Kruggel for the clip submission.
A lot of the recent discussion on the manufacturing industry has framed the loss of employment as a reduction in manufacturing capacity. The US manufactures more physical goods than ever, but it’s using labor as the primary input. In this segment of Adam Ruins Everything, we meet Hank who has recently been laid off from his job at the factory. In an earlier segment, Hank and Adam discuss major economic measures like GDP and Unemployment. In this segment, they discuss some of the misperceptions about manufacturing.
Adam Ruins Everything is a half-hour informational comedy where host, Adam Conover, debunks popular myths. Each episode is divided into 3 segments with some common themes. In the Spring of 2018, James Tierney and I sat down to go through all three seasons of Adam Ruins Everything to pick out examples in each episode that could be used in an economics course.
In the Summer of 2020, the paper was officially published in The Journal of Economics and Finance Education, which you can read online.
James Tierney shared this great clip on his website a few years ago and it covers the idea of using Project Runway to discuss specialization and gains from trade. One of the contestants describes the process of designing the outfit line and discusses each member’s role in the creation of the outcome.
This is one of the better “lyrics” music videos made by a YouTube user for Brad Paisley’s American Saturday Night. I use this song as my pre-class music for the international trade chapter. I use this as an introduction to start talking about why we have preferences for items from certain regions of the world and why we don’t just make them all here?
Author of “Spousonomics” says the secret is a life of economic analysis.