A Crude Awaking: The Oil Crash – Peak-oil theory investigation
A Good Year – Investment banking and fraud
Amelie – Maximising utility
American Psycho – Financial intrigue
Ashani Sanket (Distant Thunder) – Economics of famine
Balkanizateur – Efficiency of capital markets
Black Gold – farming in Nigeria – the challenges faced
Boiler Room – Making illegal profits
Brassed Off – Effects of Industrial decline
Cast Away – Motivational theory
City of God – Poverty and the value of human life in Brazil
The Corporation – Corporations as externalising machines
Darwin’s Nightmare – Tragedy of the commons, the effect of multinational co-operations on Uganda and Tanzania
Death of a Salesman – Choice of profession, sense of self-worth based on economic performance
Elite Squad – Importance of trust and property rights in economic development
Enron: the Smartest Guys in the Room – Perverse incentives, regulation of private business, supply restrictions raising price
Erin Brokovich – Environmental externalities
Goldfinger – Relative price of gold
The Insider – Business ethics
Kinky Boots – Redundancy, motivation and product operations
LA Confidential – Prisoners’ dilemma
La Haine – Government interest in employment and education
La Terra Trema – Poverty and the risks of entrepreneurship
Life and Debt – Fair trade, inequality and economic growth
Monty Python’s Life of Brian – First-degree price discrimination (Haggling scene)
The Lives of Others – Spending GDP
Mary Poppins – A run on the bank
McLibel – Externalities and civil justice
The Meaning of Life – Externalities from consumption (“Mr Creosote explodes” scene)
Mother India – Rural financial markets in poor countries
Oliver Twist – Economics of crime, economics of charities
Of Mice and Men – The Great Depression, migrant workers, the multiplier effect
Other People’s Money – Business understanding
Pride and Prejudice – Dowries, economics of inheritance
Rogue Trader – The collapse of Baring’s Bank
Rounders – Game theory, risk aversion and behavioural economics
Startup.com – Venture capital, business growth and failure
St Francis – Choice between wealth and poverty
Thank You for Smoking – Power of corporation, nature of business ethics, the principal-agent problem and externalities
There Will be Blood – Entrepreneurship and risk
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre – Barriers to entry, labour theory of value, turning labour into capital, economic value of trust, role of property rights
The Trillion Dollar Bet – Money and banking
The Tycoon – Emergence of crime in countries in transition from communist to market economies
Toplo – Agency theory
Trading Places – Profit – making scheme Wall Street Real market schemes
Walmart – The High Cost of Low Prices – Business practices
When the Leeves Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts – Looking at the reaction to Hurricane Katrina
This list has been compiled from:
A case-study by Gherardo Girardi
Many films (not listed) also contain large amounts of game theory, this site acts as a ‘game theory in films’ archive.