I Can See Your Voice — Asymmetric Information

Could you tell if someone is a good singer just by the way they look or by how they lip-sync a song? In this music game show, contestants perform a variety of tasks and judges have to decide whether or not the person is actually a good singer. The show’s host and the performers know the truth, but the judges are left in the dark. This show, and even just the concept of the show, is a great example of asymmetric information. For judges, it’s hard to make decisions with limited information, but they’ll use signals to see if they can be successful.

Full episodes of I Can See Your Voice can be found on Fox: https://www.fox.com/i-can-see-your-voice/

Thanks to Shreyasee Das for the recommendation!

2022 0

Family Guy — Drive-Thru Externalities

Joe wants to go on a cross country road trip, but he’s being a bit of a bother. He isn’t taking into account his actions and how they may be impacting others. For example, his decision to goof off in the drive-thru line for food bothers Cleveland, but also the people waiting in line to get food. Negative externalities occur when an individual is making private decisions (like goofing off), but not considering how that impacts the people around them (like the others in line).

This clip was submitted by Isaac Messinger.

2018 0

Brooklyn 99 — Healthcare Costs

Terry is debating with himself on whether to get a vasectomy after the birth of his two little girls. He goes in for the procedure, but while under anesthesia he confesses to Jake that he is conflicted. Terry doesn’t believe Jake, but Jake has tried to make it a point that he’s Terry’s friend and is looking out for him. Terry asks him to focus on his own body and points out that Jake’s poor diet is the reason why healthcare is so expensive for everyone else. At the end of the episode, Terry gifts Jake a box of carrots, but Jake doesn’t really appreciate it.

2018 0

Brooklyn 99 — The Danger of Email

Jake and Charles are sent to the US Postal Inspection Services to get help with a case they are working on that involves a mail key. There they meet Agent Jack Danger who identifies the key as being part of a set of old post boxes that are no longer in service. Jake and Charles want the list of people who were responsible for collecting they key and recommend that Agent Danger emails them the list. This clearly upsets Agent Danger since many of his friends were laid off because of the introduction of email.

2018 0

Brooklyn 99 — Wine Drink as a Gift

The squad is invited over to the Captain’s house for a birthday party, and they all have the same idea when it comes to wine. While Jake wants to try to impress the captain with the finest bottle of wine, he’s a little out of the price range and settles for an $8 bottle of wine. Come to find out, the entire squad buys the same bottle of “wine drink” and Kevin isn’t too fond of their selection.

While it isn’t clear that there is much of a difference between cheap and expensive wine, “wine drink” probably doesn’t send the best signal of quality.

2018 0

Brooklyn 99 — Risk Aversion in Air Travel

Boyle is going on a singles cruise and isn’t sure when to arrive at the airport. He approaches Gina with the idea of getting to the airport 5 hours early for a domestic flight (which is already too much!), but she tries to convince him he actually needs to be there 8 hours. Some people prefer to arrive at the airport extra early because they are scared they will miss their flight, but most people don’t need to arrive more than 2 hours. Later in the episode, we learn that Boyle missed his flight because of an assignment, but that he actually bought a backup flight just in case he missed it. This is perhaps an extreme version of risk aversion.

2018 0

Brooklyn 99 — Name a Rich Juggler

Gina is back after maternity leave, but is missing her child. Terry decides to check in on Gina and ask how she’s handling her new role juggling a new child while still returning to work. Gina points out that juggling isn’t that hard or else you would see a lot of rich performers. Typically people who go through more training and have more human capital are paid better, but that may not be the case for jugglers.

2017 0

The Simpsons — Prohibition

Springfield residents are clamoring to re-enact prohibition in town, but the City Council feels like the positive externalities outweigh the costs associated with alcohol. The County Clerk finds an old law for Springfield ordinance that actually outlaws alcohol. The new Duff Zero (alcohol-free beer) isn’t as popular as the original and the Duff factory has to shut down.

2017 0

Family Guy — Velocity of Money

Chris’s grandfather gives him a rare dollar bill for his birthday, but Chris doesn’t know about it at the time. The entire episode follows this dollar bill through the city of Quahog and shows the variety of people that interact with the same dollar. The concept of the velocity of money focuses on how many times a single bill can circulate throughout the economy. When a dollar is creator, assuming it isn’t leaked through the money system, it’s value is much more than the actual dollar amount at which it’s printed.

This clip is 10 minutes long (out of a 20-minute episode). There are some parts that may not be suitable for the classroom, so please watch in its entirety before showing in class.

Thanks to Michael Coon for the submission! Check him out on Twitter!

2017 0

Futurama — Big Piece of Garbage

A giant ball of garbage is heading toward earth and the gang learns what caused it. Early settlers of New York City couldn’t figure out where to dump all their garbage. After the barges filled up, the citizens were able to acquire a rocket and shoot the garbage into space. The trash is coming back though!

2017 0