The continent nobody owns & everyone benefits from (Summer School)

This episode of Planet Money's Summer School World Tour celebrates graduation day by revisiting past lessons and introducing new economic insights from around the globe. Today's focus is on Antarctica, a continent that, despite its lack of traditional markets, holds immense economic value and offers profound lessons in economics.

Antarctica: A Continent Without Markets?

Planet Money hosts Robert Smith and Kenny Malone open the show by admitting that Antarctica was the one continent they hadn't covered in their "Seven Continents, Eight Weeks, 1,000 Ideas" series. Malone humorously questions whether there are even economic ideas to discuss in Antarctica, asking if "Kenyans penguins not afford to buy their own nests? Is the exchange rate of ice to snow out of whack?"

However, they quickly reveal that they've discovered profound economic rules at work on the continent. They introduce Natalie Stökel, a professor of economics at the University of Tasmania, who has put a price tag on the entire continent. Stökel, who lives off the southern coast of Australia, is asked if she's the closest economist to Antarctica. She speculates there might be some closer in South America but confirms she hasn't actually stepped on the ice herself.

Malone challenges Stökel, suggesting that Antarctica, with no money or private ownership, seems like the one place where economics doesn't exist. Stökel vehemently disagrees, stating, "Oh, absolutely wrong. It means there's no markets that exist, but economics is about far more than markets." She explains that economics is about understanding resources and their allocation. Antarctica, she argues, may not have many markets, but the goods and services it supplies to the rest of the world are "massive, really hugely important to the entire world economy."