Blog
Sesame Street Economics
Jim Riley
3rd September 2013
This week, I saw one of my colleagues teach a fantastic lesson on Marginal Utility Theory; not one of the most exciting topic to start the year with.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5e6ftNpGsU
His “hook,” was Sesame Street. He showed his class a video of Cookie Monster, then asked them to plot is happiness or utility. Most of the class observed his marginal utility seemed to increase with the amount of cookies he consumed.
He then produced a huge bag of cookies, which the class were allowed to eat. While they were doing this, they plotted their own marginal utility.
His top tip? Have enough cookies so that people feel sick and stop eating: Disutility!