Issue 12, Fall 1996

William A. McEachern, Editor

Grapevine

• Daniel Y. Lee of Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania invites you to visit his web page "Internet Resources on International Economics & Business." Coverage includes links to information on international trade, finance, development, trade law, statistics, econometrics, and references. From this web site there is a link to his course in international economics.

• Phil Schlarb of North Central Missouri College in Trenton sent me an official looking certificate issued by The Institute of Dog & Flea Economics designating me as an "Economic Animal." He says that living in today's economy is similar to the relationship between a dog and its fleas. When the dog suffers, the fleas share in its misery. The document, signed by Professor Schlarb as "Dog & Flea Economist" states that I qualify for the distinction "by virtue of [my] acknowledged visions of opportunity cost, marginal utility, and the laws of supply and demand" and my "fantasies of break-even points, business cycles" and the like. He uses these certificates as one way of generating student interest in economics.

• Last fall, I talked about the economics of science fiction. This prompted a discussion of economics in fiction more generally. David J. Hoaas and Harold R. Christensen of Centenary College in Shreveport, Louisiana, sent me a copy of their paper entitled "Economic Concepts in Selected Western Movies: A Comparative Study," which examines the wealth of economic content in the movies Silverado and Rustlers' Rhapsody. The paper argues that Western films can be used to supplement the principles of economics course. Economic concepts they identify in these two movies include specialization, comparative advantage, production possibilities, real versus nominal, property rights, pure competition, pure monopoly, oligopoly, game theory, asymmetric information, and rational/adaptive expectations.

• To demonstrate the free-rider problem, John Jascot of the Hartford Community and Technical College asked students to call the economic bulletin board to get information for the most recent quarter. He told students that if someone could volunteered the information the next class, the entire class would receive a grade bonus. The next class, not a single student could provide the information. This failure sparked a discussion of public goods, the free-rider problem, and opportunity cost.

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