In our previous post, we introduced EconLog readers to the ability to use The mummy And The mummy returns. This post continues that discussion.
As another important lesson in economics, siblings Evelyn and Jonathan Carnahan’s iconic collaboration with Rick O’Connell illustrates the value of specialization and comparative advantage. Evelyn brings her scientific knowledge as a librarian to the team and explains important information about the Book of the Dead and the Book of the Living, the mirrors that illuminate underground caverns, and the sah-netjer mummification room. Rick brings the skills of a marksman adventurer to the team, as well as important knowledge about the location of Hamunaptra (“Relax, I’m the map, it’s all here”). Above all, Jonathan is a pickpocket, which is an important skill when unearthing treasure and fending off mummies. Profits from trade are only possible if the parties work together through cooperative exchange.
The characters also show how the gains from cooperation can overcome conflict between groups, and how the inability to share knowledge leads to social losses. Initially, during the race to Hamunaptra, the Americans compete with our iconic trio Evy, Rick and Jonathan to arrive at Hamunaptra first. The race ends with one guide being trampled (a dangerous prospect with the camels’ top speed of almost 60 km per hour) and no health care in sight. Likewise, during the early days of the dig, the groups worked separately, and competition for resources, from dig sites to tools, continually threatens violence, including the Egyptian diggers working for the American team. However, after the Medjai’s initial attack on the camp, which included an ominous warning of additional danger, the two groups put aside their differences for the social gain of cooperative survival.
Specialized skills also help overcome incomplete transportation networks. Even Winston, the drunken Royal Air Corps pilot looking to relive his glory days of the Great War, brings in specialized flying skills as Ardeth, Rick and Jonathan race after the kidnapped Evelyn. Izzy, the dirigible pilot who converted a Royal Air Corps base into ‘Magic Carpet Airways’ The mummy returnssimilarly fills an important gap in transportation markets.
As Adam Smith wrote in Book I, Chapter I of The wealth of nations,
The division of labor, however, so far as it can be introduced, produces in every art a proportionate increase in the productive forces of labor. The separation of different trades and professions from each other seems to have occurred as a result of this advantage. This separation, too, is generally carried furthest in those countries which enjoy the highest degree of industry and improvement; What is the work of one man in a rude state of society, and generally that of several men in an improved society? […] This great increase in the amount of work which, as a result of the division of labor, the same number of people can perform, is due to three different circumstances; firstly, to the increase of the dexterity of every single worker; secondly, the saving of time usually lost in moving from one type of work to another; and finally to the invention of a multitude of machines, which ease and shorten the labor, and enable one man to do the work of many.
In this way, we also see how the benefits of specialization and trade in the story increase as people expand their networks. When the Medjai Ardeth Bay arrives to save the day with specialized knowledge on how to defeat the mummy Imhotep, the new team is able to fight Imhotep’s forces with a success that none of the characters would have experienced alone.
Issues in labor markets
Initiation into the Bembridge Scholars served as an academic status, a kind of right to title oneself, with the distinction and rights that come with it. This coveted, but optional qualification fails under control The mummy and its sequel. In both films, Evelyn discovers evidence that previous scientists had missed or even dismissed. She also corrects a major translation error in the first film, despite repeatedly not being accepted into the guild of Bembridge Scholars. So the film shows that credentialism may not be the quality mark it is often treated with. Whether she is excluded from the Scholars due to gender discrimination – as evidenced by the Egyptologist – or anti-competitive exclusionary guild behavior, Evelyn’s expertise is what wins the day – not her credentials, or even her perceived lack of practical experience. When she is finally part of the second film, Hafez, the curator of the British Museum, is also shown to be working on the side of evil by resurrecting Imhotep. Maybe The mummy returns argues that exclusionary guilds can cause corruption, especially since he faced a competitive threat. After all, the Bembridge Scholars had initially ‘begged’ Evelyn to run the British Museum The mummy returns. Presumably saving the world from immortal monsters bent on ending the world is a better sign of quality than a credential.
We can also explore the problem of asymmetric information in the labor market. In The mummythe Egyptian diggers working for the American team under the Egyptologist’s direction have little information about the dangers they face at Hamunaptra, and the same can be said of the diggers in the sequel who work under Hafez’s direction. In The mummythe Egyptologist warns the Americans not to open the base of the statue of Anubis themselves, in case of an ancient booby trap – but he gives no such warning to the diggers. Without apparent recourse to courts or other legal protections, we can see how asymmetric information leads to moral hazard problems. In both films, the diggers are not told everything they need to know to carry out their work safely. This provides an example of asymmetric information that is atypical of most economics textbooks and still highlights an important economic concept.
Negative external factors
Against the backdrop of these mundane institutional issues, the mummy Imhotep single-handedly presents some terrifying economic ideas. In particular, the Hom-Dai curse that Pharaoh’s soldiers place on him presents the classic problem of concentrated benefits and dispersed costs. It is certainly terrible to have to suffer at the hands of the Hom-Dai for thousands of years, but the benefits of the curse are concentrated among the Pharaoh’s soldiers (and perhaps his daughter as well) who carry out the curse in the name of justice. However, the distributed costs of the Hom-Dai are enormousfirst by imposing lifetime costs on three millennia of Medjai tasked with guarding Hamunaptra, and later on the people of Cairo – and in theory the entire world. Cursing must therefore have significant negative externalities, with social costs overshadowing private costs, and the Hom-Dai in particular suggests inefficient intertemporal allocation of resources by players in the first phase.
In fact, Hom Dai’s economic damage would have long-term consequences as rebuilding Cairo and compensating victims would drain even more resources. Perhaps the Medjai have set aside an insurance or compensation fund for damages over the millennia, or perhaps there is a hidden tax hidden in the tax code. In the real world, most contracts and insurance plans contain clauses for… deux ex machina to limit liability and allow breach of contract in catastrophic, unforeseen circumstances, such as during the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic or severe weather conditions.
We wonder how the people of Cairo rebuilt their city. Perhaps Evelyn used some of the treasure to fund repairs, since she was the one who reawakened Imhotep. Donating some of the proceeds from the sale of the recovered treasure could help rebuild the Cairo Museum, which was damaged by the plague of rains of fire in the film. Whether this happened is questionable, however, as Rick and Evelyn have since moved to London The mummy returns and much of the second film refers to Evelyn’s status at the British Museum of Antiquities. That said, Evelyn’s actions in the first film bear all the hallmarks of unintended consequences. From knocking over every bookshelf in the Cairo Museum library to raising the dead through curious readings from the Book of the Dead, Evelyn reminds us that unintended consequences can be frequent and costly, even from well-intentioned people. And as economists know: intentions are not outcomes. With good setup, Evelyn might invest in personal liability insurance to cover the costs of her catastrophes.
Darwyyn Deyo is an associate professor of economics at San José State University.
Alicia Plemmons is an assistant professor and director of the Center for Free Enterprise at West Virginia University.