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Ron believes that governments are a waste of taxpayer money and should be run more like private (for-profit) companies. Later he suggests that parks could operate on a token system so that anyone wanting to use the park would need to pay for their use.
See more: common resources, exclusivity, government, private goods, profit maximization, public goods, rivalry, role of government, types of goods
Most firms want workers who are hard working and dedicated, but Ron believes Tom is the best government employee because he doesn’t have those qualities. Tom’s ability to shirk would probably get him fired in most companies, but Ron sees things a bit differently.
See more: government, incentives, principle agent problem, private incentives, shirking, social incentives
Ron believes in a very limited government and describes his idea of government as a single employee with the power to start war. This clip can be used to show the extremes of the what role a government should have.
See more: government, national defense, public goods
Ann and Leslie are trying to convince local residents that a park would be a good alternative to a giant pit located near their homes. The two of them go door-to-door framing their questions to garner public support, but one local resident doesn’t want a park built near her house because of all the potential negative externalities associated with them.
See more: externalities, framing, negative externalities, public goods, rent seeking, social costs
Ann and Leslie are trying to convince local residents that a park would be a good alternative to a giant pit located near their homes. The two of them realize they aren’t getting as many responses as they were hoping so Leslie decides to re-frame the question in the hopes of getting respondents to answer the way she would like them to.
See more: behavioral, framing, public goods, survey bias, tradeoffs
Ron and Leslie meet for lunch to settle a bet, but not before Ron extolls the virtues of capitalism and competition in the free market. Leslie, of course, disagrees on the role of government because she recognizes that not all services can be provided private enterprise.
See more: capitalism, competition, externalities, free market, government, public economics, public goods, role of government
Chris isn’t feeling so well, so Ann tries to cheer him up with shrimp. Diminishing utility kicks in as Chris realizes the second shrimp isn’t as tasty as the first.
Credit: Caitlin Lee (@_caitlinnlee)
See more: diminishing returns, utility
While Leslie Knope is running for city council, the Parks Department needs to get a lot of vans to help people get to the polls. A local van rental company realizes they have a monopoly over the market for these white vans and this recent surge in demand has given them the opportunity to capitalize.
See more: bargaining power, bidding war, demand, demand shifts, imperfect competition, market power, monopoly, rent seeking, supply
Economics of Parks & Recreation 