Send us a text

Mike Munger explores how Monty Python brilliantly illustrated transaction cost economics through their legendary comedy sketches. The British comedy troupe's most famous routines provide perfect, hilarious examples of the frictions that make economic interactions costly and complicated in the real world.

• Three definitions of transaction costs from Ronald Coase, Douglas North, and Oliver Williamson
• The Dead Parrot sketch as an illustration of ex-post recontracting problems and contract enforcement
• Ministry of Silly Walks demonstrating how inefficient institutions persist due to high reform costs
• The Argument Clinic depicting problems with contract scope and definition
• Monty Python and the Holy Grail showing barriers to entry and communication costs
• Spanish Inquisition sketch revealing coordination failures

The five MP sketches mentioned here:

• Dead Parrot Sketch:  https://youtu.be/4vuW6tQ0218?si=hHfu07sgQeCgxUxx 
• Ministry of Silly Walks:  https://youtu.be/iV2ViNJFZC8?si=U5QxzDeYXeT3UhIq 
• Argument Clinic:  https://youtu.be/uLlv_aZjHXc?si=aU14dFjwnJeDvRf7 
• Holy Grail—Anarcho-Syndicalist Peasant:  https://youtu.be/_EMZ1u__LUc?si=C9z8e4NAQDRkU8q7 
• Spanish Inquisition:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5Df191WJ3o   

Letter:  Swiss Air's efficient window-seat-first boarding policy

Book'o'da'week: To Overthrow the World: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Communism, by Sean McMeekin

Next episode releases July 22nd, beginning the co-produced series on Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations" with an overview of the Scottish Enlightenment.

If you have questions or comments, or want to suggest a future topic, email the show at [email protected] !

You can follow Mike Munger on Twitter at @mungowitz