The Economics of
The Hunger Games and Divergent:
Making Dystopia Didactic
Jeffrey Cleveland, Howard Community College (MD)
Kim Holder, University of West Georgia
Brian O’Roark, Robert Morris University (PA)
NETA 11th Annual
Economics Teaching Conference
Dallas, Texas
November 5-6, 2015
Agenda
• About my classroom
• Background: The Hunger Games and
Divergent
• Macro- and microeconomic lessons
• The assignment → results
Got a question? Ask anytime.
© 2015 Jeffrey Cleveland
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About Howard County, Maryland
Baltimore
• Centrally located between Baltimore and
Washington, DC
Washington, DC
• Population: 310,000 (5% of MD)
• Median HH income: $109,865 (second in U.S.)
• #6 “Best Places to Live,” MONEY Magazine
• Howard Community College
– 14,000 credit students
– “Great College to Work For,” 2009-2014, Chronicle of Higher Education
– “You Can Get There From Here.”
© 2015 Jeffrey Cleveland
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Classroom Demographics
• Both intro to macro and micro
• 22-26 students
40 +
15%
Females
37%
Males
63%
25 to 39
35%
© 2015 Jeffrey Cleveland
up to 24
50%
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Economics: What WE Think
Price
S
Ep =
(Δ Qd / Avg Qd)
(Δ Pr / Avg Pr)
$4
PV = F / (1 + i)n
$3
D2
D1
50
MC =
Δ TVC
ΔQ
70 Quantity
MR = MC
Y = C(Y - T) + I + G + NX
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Economics: What THEY Think
“What have I gotten myself into?!”
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“You Can Get There From Here”
Abstract
Theory
Real Life
(Meaningful Use)
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The Hunger Games
Suzanne Collins
• 2008, Scholastic Press
• First book in trilogy
• Initially positioned as Young
Adult Fiction
• Print + digital: 28M HG/65M
trilogy
• Four-movie franchise, $2B
• Numerous awards
• First-person protagonist 16year-old Katniss Everdeen
© 2015 Jeffrey Cleveland
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The Hunger Games: Plot Overview
•
•
•
•
Panem, a post-apocalyptic North America
The Capitol and 13 surrounding Districts
The Capitol: Seat of power, wealth, and control
Each district assigned specific production
function (District 12: coal)
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Map of Panem
Grain
Transportation
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The Hunger Games Backstory
• Uprising 74 years ago by the Districts against
the Capitol
• Capitol emerged victorious, destroying District
13 in the process
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The Hunger Games Backstory
“War, terrible war. Widows, orphans, a motherless child. This was the
uprising that rocked our land. Thirteen districts rebelled against the
country that fed them, loved them, protected them. Brother turned on
brother until nothing remained. And then came the peace, hard fought,
sorely won. A people rose up from the ashes and a new era was born.
But freedom has a cost. When the traitors were defeated, we swore as
a nation we would never know this treason again. And so it was
decreed that, each year, the various districts of Panem would offer
up, in tribute, one young man and woman to fight to the death in a
pageant of honor, courage and sacrifice. The lone victor, bathed in
riches, would serve as a reminder of our generosity and our
forgiveness. This is how we remember our past. This is how we
safeguard our future.”
President Coriolanus Snow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgEJyn69cw4
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The Treaty of the Treason
• “In penance for their uprising, each District shall
offer up a male and female (“Tributes”) between the
ages of 12 and 18 at a public ‘Reaping.’
• “These Tributes shall be delivered to the custody of
the Capitol, then transferred to a public arena where
they will Fight to the Death until a lone victor
remains.
• “Henceforth and forevermore this pageant shall be
known as the Hunger Games.”
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1. Identifying the
Economic Organization
Gregory and Stuart (1999)
• Decision-making structure
Centralized
multitude of economic actors
• Coordination and dissemination of information
Planning document
pricing mechanism
• Property ownership and rights
State
common/co-op
private
• Incentives
Fear
self-interest
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1. Identifying the
Economic Organization
• Capitol controls ALL economic decisions
– Monopsony; no inter-district trade
– Absolute or comparative advantage?
• Information
– Plan quotas enforced through Peacekeepers
• Property ownership
– Capitol owns all factors of production
• Incentives
– Fear: the Reaping
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2. Production:
Possibilities and Frontiers
• Two-sector specific-factors model
C1
Guns
A1
C2
A2
B1
A3
B2
B3
A4
Roses
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2. Production:
Possibilities and Frontiers
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2. Production:
Possibilities and Frontiers
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2. Production:
Possibilities and Frontiers
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2. Production:
Possibilities and Frontiers
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2. Production:
Possibilities and Frontiers
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2. Production:
Possibilities and Frontiers
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2. Production:
Possibilities and Frontiers
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2. Production:
Possibilities and Frontiers
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3. GDP and Standards of Living
• Defining economic activity and output
• GDP per capita as a proxy for standard of living
• Real-world comparative economics
Country
Haiti
Country
Canada
USA
Mexico
GDP (B)
GDP/capita
$9
$1,757
$64
$14,014
GDP (B)
GDP/capita
$1,785
$44,967
$17,348
$54,370
2014 GDP and GDP/capita PPP
(Source: IMF)
N. Korea
$15
$1,800
$1,291
$17,950
© 2015 Jeffrey Cleveland
S. Korea
$1,667
$35,379
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DR
Country
GDP (B)
GDP/capita
3. GDP and Standards of Living
• Advantage: Capitol
– Access to/control of technology enablers
– Standing military force
– Exploitation through resource extraction
– Political control through economic dominance and
restrictions
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3. GDP and Standards of Living
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
NO free trade
NO labor mobility
NO inter-district travel or communication
NO capital formation or investment
NO private property or ownership rights
NO opportunity for entrepreneurship or innovation
NO ability to pursue self-interests
NO ability to enter into non-coerced contracts
NO pursuit of the profit motive
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3. GDP and Standards of Living
• Drivers of economic growth
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Free trade
Unrestricted travel and communication
Mobility of labor and capital
Private property ownership and rights
Consumer sovereignty
Entrepreneurship
Pursuit of self interests and the profit motive
Could the citizens of the
Capitol have even higher
standards of living today?
Do dystopian leaders care
about the standards of
living of their citizens?
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4. Distribution of Income
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4. Distribution of Income
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5. Game Theory and the
Taking of Tesserae
• Reaping Rules
– All 12- to 18-year-olds
– Cumulative entries over time
• 12-year old = one lottery entry
• 13-year-old = two entries → 18-year-old = seven entries
– One boy, one girl from each of 12 districts
• Tesserae
– “A year's meager supply of grain and oil for one person”
– Limited to the total number of family members
– Also cumulative entries over time
• (18-year-old) + (total family size = 5) + (tesserae each year) = 42
entries
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_s7qgNMqDJI
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5. Game Theory and the
Taking of Tesserae
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6. A Special Case:
Food as a Veblen Good?
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6. A Special Case:
Food as a Veblen Good?
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6. A Special Case:
Food as a Veblen Good?
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Divergent: One Choice
•
•
•
•
•
Decides your friends
Defines your beliefs
Determines your loyalties – forever
Can transform you
A lifetime of opportunity costs at the
‘Choosing Ceremony’: “On an appointed day
of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must
select the faction to which they will devote
the rest of their lives.”
Divergent: Division of Labor
The Factions are responsible for different
things to help the society function.
Compassion/
Governance
Truth???
Food
Law/
Technology
Protection
Divergent: It’s All About Scarcity
• Who controls the
resources?
• Abnegation does, but
Erudite wants them.
• Erudite’s claims:
– Abnegation is withholding
resources.
– They are giving the
“Factionless” too much.
Divergent: Production
• There is a need for labor to create prosperity
– As Dauntless/Erudite begins their takeover, they can’t kill
EVERYONE.
• Human capital and technology
– The Factionless want to destroy data.
– To deprive Erudite of power they need to deprive them of
knowledge.
• Sustainable production
– Amity is a perfect example
– This is a general theme of dystopian production.
The Hunger Games: The Assignment
• 1,500 word paper on various economic ideas
• Worth 15% of final grade
• Structure
– Introduction/thesis
– Critical thinking on key economic ideas
– Conclusion/synthesis of thesis and thinking
• Grading criteria
–
–
–
–
Spelling, grammar, and organization
Clarity of the summary
Economic analysis
Timeliness
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Paper Grades and Final Grades
n = 153
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Student Observations
“Through the use of properly implemented fiscal and monetary
policy by the government, the nation of Panem could enjoy
drastically higher standards of living than those that are
currently present among the lower districts, and improve the
general measure of standard of living (Gross Domestic Product
per capita) for the nation of Panem as a whole.”
- Griffin
“Collins shows that as long as this inefficient economic structure
is in place, the odds will never be in their favor.”
- Nicole
© 2015 Jeffrey Cleveland
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The Economics of
The Hunger Games and Divergent:
Making Dystopia Didactic
Jeffrey Cleveland, Howard Community College (MD)
Kim Holder, University of West Georgia
Brian O’Roark, Robert Morris University (PA)
NETA 11th Annual
Economics Teaching Conference
Dallas, Texas
November 5-6, 2015