In teaching economics to undergraduate students in the United States, professors have two obstacles to overcome. First, students are often bored because academic economics is dry, abstract, and relies heavily on equations and graphs. Second, students are often unable to apply economic theory to the world they are familiar with. Both obstacles can be overcome by using commercial films and popular novels to illustrate economic principles.

The goal of this paper is to explore how professors can bridge the worlds of theoretical economics and popular culture, and in the process make the teaching of economic ideas and methods more effective. The fact is that economics is all around us in our daily lives, and it provides a lens through which human activity can be viewed. Films and fiction help professors to make this point to students and to translate it into cultural terms and language that they will understand and enjoy.

Professors will be more effective if they use films and fiction that students are familiar with. In order to identify those, we developed a questionnaire and polled some 650 students. On the basis of the results, we chose 33 film clips and fiction excerpts that were then tested in an introductory macroeconomics class. We are in the process of preparing a manuscript- a supplementary text for use in introductory economics classes, together with any macro, micro or principles textbook.