The Economics of Seinfeld
Just stumbled upon this site, yadayadayadaecon.com. It is operated by three econ professors who select clips from Seinfeld to illustrate economic concepts like price ceilings, moral hazard, cost-benefit analysis, game theory, arbitrage, etc.
Some examples:
The Bottle Deposit episode, where Newman and Kramer scheme to take bottles from New York, where the deposit is 5 cents, to Michigan, where the deposit is 10 cents, is an example of arbitrage.
The Cafe episode, where Jerry convinces Babu to serve Pakistani food because he will be the only Pakistani restaurant in the neighborhood is an example of monopolistic competition.
The Fusilli Jerry episode, where Jerry’s takes his car to a new mechanic who gives him too high of an estimate and George remarks “Of course they’re trying to screw you—that’s what they do. It’s because you don’t know anything about what’s going on under there!” is an example of asymmetric information.
