Documentaries as Data and Dialogue: A Critical Assessment of Research and Teaching Potential in Economics

Economics education and research have long relied on formal quantitative methods and abstract theoretical models. This approach creates a gap between textbook material and actual economic life. This discussion paper makes the case for documentary film as a valuable secondary methodological tool and pedagogical technique to help bridge this gap. Although mathematical models, statistics, and econometrics play an invaluable role in economic research, it is impossible to fully incorporate the institutional, historical, cultural, and behavioral factors that drive economic events into such models. Similarly, many students struggle to connect abstract notions such as inflation, market failures, externalities, foreign direct investment (FDI), and inequality to their everyday realities. Drawing on evidence from several research projects and classroom experiments, I argue that documentary films offer a way to ground economic theory in reality through specific examples, narratives, experiences, and perspectives. In economic research, documentary films provide in-depth qualitative case evidence that can be systematically analyzed using established methods such as thematic analysis (TA), grounded theory, qualitative coding, and structured note-taking. Pedagogically, documentaries can promote interactive classroom discussions, foster critical thinking, and enhance student interest by bringing academic learning into real-world contexts. They demonstrate the versatility of documentary films as a data source for analyzing dispersed and international economic transactions, such as heterogeneous externalities associated with FDI. Despite potential issues such as narrative bias and the need for methodologically sound implementation of a film-based approach, documentary films serve as a useful complement when other quantitative data sources fall short or when context is crucial. Overall, this paper calls for greater methodological openness in economics by exploring the use of documentary films in research and in the classroom.