John Hawkins

Thank you, David.

Well, so most of the articles I write during the year tend to be fairly dry about talking about some bit of economic data that's come out.

One that gets to sort of Christmas, New Year, I like to do something a bit more lighthearted.

But I also want something that can get my students interested in economics by applying it to sort of popular culture.

And I think there are aspects of economics that you can learn from watching Star Trek.

And one of those...

is the difference between conventional economics and behavioural economics.

So conventional economics assumes everybody is very sort of logical, rational, and so very much like Mr Spock.

Whereas behavioural economics says, well, no, in reality, people try to make sensible decisions, but they're not always logical.

They're often impatient.

They make mistakes.

They don't have perfect information.

And they're emotional.

So they're more like Captain Kirk.

There are some contradictions.

So it's interesting, yeah, they do claim to be post-money on some occasions and they've got replicators which are essentially like 3D printers and you can generate food or any other object you want from them apparently sort of costlessly.

Yet, from time to time, monetary terms slip into the conversation.

So, in one episode, Billans referred to as having counterfeited currency to purchase a ship.

Well, if there was no money, that wouldn't be possible, for example.

Another episode, there's a pile of jewels, and Kirk, in theory, actually said this would be worth a fortune.