Filmonomics : Economists Discuss the Silver Screen

What could movies as diverse as The Last Samurai, Cléo from 5 to 7, or Dr. Strangelove have in common? Filmonomics has a simple yet intriguing answer: economics as the main driving force of the plot or as the main motivation of the characters’ actions.

This book analyses how movie makers use economic and financial motives in their plots or to build their characters. Have they done it in line with economic theory? Or are they proposing a new angle, a new perspective, that economists should take note of? The authors here do not discuss wages in the film industry or the economics of movies. What interests them is the economic motivations underpinning the behaviour of fictional characters in their favourite films. They argue that credible movie characters can behave in irrational ways, and movie makers occasionally introduce new ideas that economists should take note of.

A unique contribution, this book will be of interest to readers eager to discover what economists have to say about films and film directors. It will be indispensable for students and researchers of economics, media studies, film studies, and cultural studies.

André de Palma holds a PhD in Physics (supervised by Nobel Laureate I. Prigogine) from the Free University of Brussels and a PhD in Economics from the University of Burgundy. He has taught in the following institutions: Queen’s University, Canada; Northwestern University, USA; University of Geneva, Switzerland; and Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS) Paris Saclay, France. He is an honorary member of the Institut Universitaire de France and the Association française d’économie des transports. He is a founding member of the international association of Transport Economics. He is now Emeritus Chair Professor at CY Cergy-Paris University and a visiting researcher at Strasbourg and Laval, Canada Universities, and an instructor at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland. He specializes in transportation economics, behavioural economics, industrial organization, and risk. He has also published outside the field of economics, including ‘L’addiction rationnelle dans une nouvelle de Stefan Zweig’ and ‘Ode à l’erreur,’ in 2021 (Quand la littérature nous est contée, La lettre volée, Edition de l’Université Libre de Bruxelles).

Luc Leruth is an associate researcher at the University of Clermont-Auvergne, France. He has an M.Sc. in Mathematics and an M.A. and a PhD in Economics. A former International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff member, he has led missions in numerous countries, was the head of the Fiscal Transparency Unit, secretary of the G10, and director of three Regional Technical Assistance Centers. He has also pursued an academic career, holding teaching positions at the Free University Brussels, the University of Liège, and the University of Essex. He was a member of Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE) and has published numerous papers in peer-reviewed journals. He has also pursued a literary career. His first novel, La 4ème Note, was published in August 2001, translated into Portuguese and Russian. It was the best-selling first novel at Gallimard for 2001 and a finalist of the Prince of Monaco “Best Young Author” biennial Award. His second novel, La Machine Magique, was also published in the Collection Blanche, Gallimard (2004). In collaboration with Jean Drèze, he is the author of Rumble in a Village (2020). His first play Le Daguerréotypiste malgré lui was published in 2022.