Economics Project Guide

Name:__________________________ P:______

Project Directions
Choose a piece of media film, TV show, video game, novel, comic, etc. and analyze it to show
your knowledge of as many of the Vocabulary Terms as possible.
Vocabulary Terms
(Tragedy of) the commons
Public
Private
o Shared Consumption
o Exclusion
Fascism
Feudalism
Anarchy
Socialism
Communism
Capitalism
Scarcity
Progressive (liberal) tax policy
Regressive (conservative) tax policy
Flat/Proportional tax policy
Diminishing marginal utility
Diminishing returns
Law of demand
Law of supply
Surplus
Shortage
Market (equilibrium) price
Opportunity cost
Cost-benefit analysis
Elastic demand
Inelastic demand
Ask yourself questions such as:
How does the ruling authority collect resources?
What kind of public services does it provide?
Do you see any economic systems at work? For example, are the characters only
taking care of themselves (anarchy or capitalism) or is there some sharing of resources
(capitalism or communism)?
How do characters choose their work?
Do characters deal with scarcity? How does it affect them?
Do characters deal with opportunity cost or go through a cost-benefit analysis? What
crucial choices must they make?
How do characters get what they want? Do they have to deal with a surplus or
shortage? Law of demand or Law of supply?
Do they experience diminishing marginal utility or diminishing returns?
For example, when thinking of Batman you could ask yourself questions such as:
Is Joker an anarchist?

Economics Project Guide

Name:__________________________ P:______

Is Batman a capitalist?
What do they want?
How do they use their resources to get it?
What kind of choices must they make?
What is the economy of Gotham?

Economics is EVERYWHERE, so nearly any piece of media will work for this project. Just pick
something you enjoy and try looking at it through an economic lens.
You can choose the format in which you want to complete this project. Some options:
Essay
Video
Poster
PowerPoint (or other slide show)
Poem or song
If you have another idea its probably okay

This project will be graded on both the quantity of vocabulary terms you discuss
correctly and the depth/detail of your explanations.

Due: Week of Mon 4/11- Fri 4/15