McCaffrey and Dorobat on First Principles on the Final Frontier: Economic Foundations of Science Fiction

Matthew McCaffrey, University of Manchester, Manchester Business School, and Carmen-Elena Dorobat, Manchester Business School, Strategy Enterprise and Sustainbility, have published First Principles on the Final Frontier: Economic Foundations of Science Fiction Television. Here is the abstract.

Paul Cantor pioneered the use of Austrian economics in literary criticism, showing not only how sound economic reasoning can be used to interpret literary texts, but also how it helps us to appreciate such texts as celebrations of commercial culture. To honor Cantor's work, in this chapter we apply some fundamental economic principles to boldly go where no one has gone before: modern science fiction. We explore several ways in which sci-fi television shows spanning several decades—such as Battlestar Galactica and The Expanse, as well as Star Trek: The Next Generation, Firefly, and Andor—incorporate economic principles and use them as sources of dramatic tension. These principles include scarcity, division of labor and autarky, trade and prices, protectionism and war, and the role of international (or perhaps, interstellar) organizations in promoting peace and prosperity.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.