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Economics at the Movies: Cool Hand Luke and Diminishing Returns

Geoff Riley

26th August 2011

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“If he eats one egg a minute, he’ll have ten minutes to swallow!” The classic movie Cool Hand Luke featuring the legend Paul Newman provides an ideal example of the law of diminishing marginal utility. Newman attempts to eat 50 eggs in an hour - I am not suggesting that students attempt to do the same thing but you can easily substitute hard-boiled eggs for Jaffa Cakes, cream crackers or something else to test the idea that marginal utility declines as consumption increases!

Here is the link to the film - go to Minute 4.50 for the start of the egg-eating scene - it is in chapter 12 of the DVD edition.

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Geoff Riley

Geoff Riley FRSA has been teaching Economics for nearly forty years. He has over twenty years experience as Head of Economics at leading schools. He writes extensively and is a contributor and presenter on CPD and Revision conferences in the UK and overseas.

@tutor2uGeoff

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