The Political Economy of Concentration: Expertise and Comparative Advantage

In our previous post, we introduced EconLog readers to the possibility of using Mother again Mother is coming back. This post continues that discussion.

As another important lesson in economics, the iconic sibling team Evelyn and Jonathan Carnahan and Rick O’Connell illustrate the importance of specialization and comparative advantage. Evelyn brings her academic knowledge as a librarian to the group and explains important information about the Book of the Dead and the Book of the Living, mirrors that illuminate underground caves, and sah-netjer the bathroom. Rick brings a skill set to the gunslinger team, as well as valuable information about Hamunaptra’s location (“Relax, I’m the map, it’s all up here”). Jonathan is, above all, a pickpocket, which is an important skill when unearthing treasures and fighting corpses. The benefits of trade can only happen when the parties work together through cooperative trade.

The characters also show how the benefits of cooperation can overcome conflict between groups, and how the failure to share information leads to the loss of society. In the beginning, during the race to Hamunaptra, the Americans compete with our iconic trio Evy, Rick, and Jonathan to reach Hamunaptra first. The race ends with one guide getting trampled (a dangerous thing with the camels speed of almost 40 kilometers per hour), and no medical care. Similarly, during the early days of the excavation, the groups worked separately, and the competition for resources, from drilling sites to tools, threatened violence continuously, including among the Egyptians working for the American group. However, after Medjai’s first attack on the camp, which included a dire warning of further danger, the two groups set aside their differences for the good of the community to live together.

Special skills also help to overcome imperfect transportation networks. Even Winston, a drunken Royal Air Corps pilot who wishes to relive his glory days of the Great War, brings special flying skills as Ardeth, Rick, and Jonathan race after Evelyn’s capture. Izzy, a utility pilot who reinvented the Royal Air Corps base into “Magic Carpet Airways” Mother is coming backlikewise fills an important gap in transportation markets.

As Adam Smith wrote in Book I, Chapter I The Treasure of Nations,

However, the division of labor, as it may be presented, times, in every art, a proportional increase in the productive power of labor. The separation of different commercial activities and employment from each other, seems to have happened because of this advantage. This division, in turn, is often carried forward in those countries that enjoy a high level of industrialization and improvement; What is the work of one person, in a state of social disdain, is often the least developed […] This great increase in the amount of work, which, due to the division of labor, the same number of people are able to do, is due to three different circumstances; first, in increasing the intelligence of all certain workers; secondly, in saving time that is often lost in transferring from one type of work to another; and, lastly, to the invention of a great number of machines which simplify and shorten labour, and enable one man to do the work of many.

In this way, we also see how professional and commercial benefits increase in the story as people expand their networks. When the Medjai Ardeth Bay arrives to save the day with special information about how to defeat Imhotep’s mother, the new group is able to fight Imhotep’s army with success no character could face alone.

Problems in the Labor Market

Commencement at Bembridge served as a condition of education, a form of self-discipline and privilege. This is a desirable validation, however the optional fails under test Mother and its sequence. In both films, Evelyn discovers evidence that previous scholars missed or dismissed. He also corrects a critical mistranslation in the first film, despite repeatedly not being accepted into the Bembridge Scholars association. So the film shows that authenticity is perhaps not the sign of quality it is often treated as. Whether she is barred from the Academics due to discrimination based on gender – as evidenced by the Egyptologist – or the conduct of the organization that does not include competition, Evelyn’s intelligence wins the day – not her credentials, or the suspicion of her lack of professional experience. When he finally becomes a member of the second film, Hafez, a curator of the British Museum, also turns out to be working for the side of evil by resurrecting Imhotep again. Maybe Mother is coming back He states that organizations that are not involved can breed corruption, especially as they face the threat of competition. After all, scholars from Bembridge had been “persuading” Evelyn to run the British Museum at the beginning of Mother is coming back. Presumably, saving the world from immortals bent on destroying the world is better evidence of quality than evidence.

We can also examine the problem of asymmetric information in labor markets. In Motherthe Egyptian diggers working for the American team under the supervision of an Egyptologist have little knowledge of the dangers facing them in Hamunaptra, and the same can be said of the sequel archaeologists working under the supervision of Hafez. In MotherAn Egyptologist warns Americans against opening the base of the statue of Anubis themselves, in case of an ancient booby trap – but he does not give such a warning to the hunters. Without clear recourse to courts or other legal protections, we can see how asymmetric information leads to moral hazard problems. In both films, the miners are not told everything they need to know to do their job safely. This provides an example of asymmetric information atypical in many economic books that still illuminates an important economic concept.

Negative Externalities

Against the background of these daily institutional questions, mother Imhotep presented some alarming economic ideas on her own. In particular, Hom-Dai’s curse that Pharaoh’s soldiers put on him illustrates the classic problem of concentrated benefits and scattered costs. Hom-Dai’s suffering over the millennia is terrible, sure, but the benefits of the curse are centered on the pharaoh’s soldiers (and possibly his daughter) who cast the curse in the name of justice. However, the scattered costs of Hom-Dai are bigfirst by imposing a lifetime cost on the three thousand years of Medjai who must guard Hamunaptra, and later on the citizens of Cairo – and in consideration of the whole world. Thus setting curses must have significant negative externalities, where public costs reduce private costs, and Hom-Dai in particular suggests the allocation of resources during the inefficient period by first-tier players.

The economic damage from Hom-Dai will have long-lasting effects, as rebuilding Cairo and reparations for victims will consume other resources. Perhaps Medjai has set aside an insurance or damage compensation fund over the millennia, or perhaps there is a hidden tax buried in the tax code. In the real world, most contracts and insurance plans include clauses deux ex machina limiting liability and allowing for breach of contract in unforeseen catastrophic situations, such as during the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic or severe weather events.

We are left wondering how the citizens of Cairo rebuilt their city. Perhaps Evelyn used some of this wealth to pay for repairs, since she was the one who resurrected Imhotep. Donating some of the proceeds from the sale of the salvaged treasure would help rebuild the Cairo Museum, which was damaged by the brutal fire in the film. Whether this happened is doubtful, however, as Rick and Evelyn have moved to London Mother is coming back and much of the second film refers to Evelyn’s situation with the British Museum of Antiquities. That said, Evelyn’s actions throughout the first film bear all the hallmarks of unintended consequences. From hitting all the bookshelves in the Cairo Museum library to raising the dead by reading The Book of the Dead, Evelyn reminds us that unintended consequences can be frequent and costly, even for people with the best intentions. And as economists know, intentions are not results. With good institutions, perhaps, Evelyn could have invested in a personal liability insurance plan to cover the expenses from her disasters.

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Darwyyn Deyo is an Associate Professor of Economics at San José State University.