Tag: market power

After Life — Ordering a Kid’s Meal

In this clip, the main character, played by Ricky Garvais, is taking his nephew out to lunch. They decide to both order the fish sticks meal from the kids’ menu. When Ricky attempts to order this meal, the waitress informs him it is only for children. Although the café is practicing a common form of price discrimination, Ricky’s character is confused and argues he should be able to order the meal and pay a smaller price for a smaller portion. The server argues this is not true, and that the meal is made cheaper for children. The character claims his nephew is hungry and wants to eat two meals… much to the waitress’s chagrin.

This clip is an excellent display of price discrimination, the necessary condition of being able to segment the consumer base (by age- with visual confirmation), and a conversation/confusion around if different prices truly reflect different marginal costs of production.

Thanks to Sheena Murray for the clip submission and summary!

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Schitt’s Creek — Christmas Demand & Price Discrimination

The Roses are trying to buy a last-minute Christmas tree, but they’ve come to realize their options are limited. The shop owner knows demand has recently been higher because there aren’t a lot of trees available in the store. Raymond finds that the prices are higher than he was expecting and decides to leave.

The shop owner takes a few creative approaches to selling trees, including bundling air fresheners with purchase and offering a discount if people buy two trees. Price discrimination is a popular tool to increase output for a firm and sell products to people across the demand curve.

Thanks to James Tierney for the submission:

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Seinfeld — Soup Nazi

 

Superior products can provide companies with a short term barrier to entry in a market, but they aren’t usually long lasting. Beyond technological superiority, some companies may have service or quality superiority, as is the case with the Soup Nazi in Seinfeld. Offering a superior product allows the owner to treat customers rudely, offer high prices, and restrict output as he desires.

This clip is available thanks to Economics of Seinfeld.

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Stossel — Diamond Engagement Rings

 

In this Stossel segment, we learn about the history of the De Beers diamond corporation and their control of the diamond market. Stossel interviews guests and asks them to identify diamonds from knock-off rings, but most can’t tell the difference despite claiming to be capable.

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Adam Ruins Everything — Diamond Rings

One of the textbook examples of monopoly power comes from De Beers Diamond Corporation and their control over the diamond markets since the end of the Great Depression. In this short scene, Adam Conover covers the history on engagement rings and discusses the monopoly power that the De Beers company had in the market.

Adam Ruins Everything is a half-hour informational comedy were host, Adam Conover, debunks popular myths. Each episode is divided into 3 segments with some common theme. 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. If you’re curious about the paper, you can read about it here.

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Hawaii 5-0 — Product Differentiation

 

In monopolistically competitive markets, sellers offer differentiated products, and this Hawaiian food truck is no different. While some people believe that food trucks should only offer a small range of menus, the chef argues that in order to stand out in such a competitive market that he has to offer variety. Introducing new substitutes will decrease the demand for others and eventually lead to zero economic profit.

Thanks to Hannah Canil for the clip suggestion!

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The National — Bread Collusion in Canada

Over the past 15 years bakers in Canada have been colluding to raise the price of bread across many of Canada’s major retailers. The retailers (allegedly) agreed to the price increase so long as the others in the group also maintained the high prices. While some of the retailers are denying the claim, Canada’s Competition Bureau is developing a case to expose the participants.

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Senator Alesi — Zone Pricing for Gasoline

Senator Alesi discusses a practice known as zone pricing whereas oil companies charge different prices to gasoline station owners depending on how affluent the surrounding area is. This leads to differing gas prices for citizens across the city.

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Parks & Rec: Market Power

 

I was watching Parks & Rec with a friend one night and came across this great clip that showed market power of monopolies. Ron & Co. originally reserved 22 white vans from the local rental company for Leslie’s campaign. Right before voting day, the rental agency opted to rent the vans to someone else. A negotiation ensues.

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