Author: Jadrian Wooten

Economics eductor. Follow me @Wootenomics

Tommy’s Closet vs. Rent-A-Swag

2017

Tom gets an offer that someone is interested in buying his business. After some though, Tom chooses not to sell his clothing rental business and then finds out that the potential buyer will now try to drive him out of business by setting up across the street. Monopolistic competition allows for easy entry and exit into a market that is profitable and results in a reduction in long term profits. This is also a good example of the Hotelling Model where similar firms setup near each other to split the market.

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Which Bus Tour to Take?

2017

Members of the Parks Department goes to London to visit, but Leslie can’t decide which bus tour to take. She has three options, all starting around the same time and needs to pick one. Ron and April aren’t much help. Because time is a scarce resource, Leslie needs to figure out which bus tour will maximize her happiness.

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Unintended Snake Juice Consequences

2017

Tom incentives the department to come to his club and try his newest drink by threatening to place them on his “done-zo” list. The Parks Department decides to go to the Snake Hole Lounge to try Tom’s new drink, but instead they all have a bit too much and go through the next day feeling terrible. One of the other issues shown in this video is diminishing marginal utility. As the night goes on, each member of the group gets a bit happier, but they eventually peak and see negative returns the next morning.

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Tom the Entrepreneur

2017

Tom fancies himself an entrepreneur and lists off a variety of different business ideas he has. Throughout the series, Tom comes up with different business ideas, but this is just a subset of his ideas that he names during the premier of his alcoholic beverage, Snake Juice. Most of his ideas though are really just variances of other products so Tom is focusing on differentiating the businesses to serve niche markets.

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Eagleton Pride

2017

Neighboring city, Eagleton, has decided to build a fence around a small park they used to share with the citizens of Pawnee. Throughout the episode, we learn of various quality-of-life factors that Eagleton excels in relative to Pawnee. Things like obesity, height, income, wealth, and life expectancy are all much higher than in Pawnee, and the citizens of Eagleton want to keep it that way.

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93 Meetings

2017

April accidentally schedules all of Ron’s meetings for March 31st because she doesn’t think it’s a real day. Instead, Ron has to deal with a variety of concerned citizens, many of whom are causing externalities throughout the city.

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Cologne Cloud

2017

Tom wants to look good, and smell good, for Jessica Newport so he decides to sit for a few minutes in his “cologne cloud.” The smell is so overpowering though that Leslie needs to exit the car immediately. While Tom feels be benefits are worth the smell, Leslie isn’t a fan of the external effects.

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The Pawnee Video Dome is Failing

2017

The Pawnee Video Dome is failing and going out of business. Leslie is trying to find tax breaks to keep him afloat, but Ron says the market is signaling that the company is not providing enough value to consumers and deserves to fail. If companies provide a social good (like intellectual conversations) then governments may step in and subsidize the production of the service.

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Joan’s Opinion

2017

Leslie goes on Pawnee Today to talk about the City Council’s approval ratings. Joan Callamezzo is not at her best and describes the situation as a fact when it’s really her opinion. This is a good opening segue to discussing normative vs positive statements.

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