Modern Family’s pilot episode aired September 23, 2009 and has since won over 20 Emmy’s and a Golden Globe for Best Television Series. From 2010 to 2014, the show won five consecutive Primetime Emmy awards for Best Comedy Series. Various actors and actresses on the show have won awards for supporting roles and it current ranks as ABC’s longest running comedy series. Buried in the mockumentary are subtle themes associated with economics of families. While traditional coverage of economics topics like opportunity costs and demand shifts are present, there is a rich set of topics that can be used to teach labor economics, industrial organization, behavioral economics, economic demography, and economics of the family. If you’ve never seen Modern Family, check out this short overview of the Modern Family “Family Tree,” which includes interviews with directors and actors:

The purpose of this website is to provide educators with video clips from the popular ABC comedy series that can be used in the classroom to help facilitate engagement. Our hope is that this side aides instructors in showing economics clips from a diverse (perhaps modern?) society. This website was published as a note in The Journal of Economic Education. If you use clips from this site or reference this site in your papers, we would appreciate if you included the following reference:

Wooten, J.J., Staub, K., Reilly, S. (2020) Economics within ABC’s Modern Family, The Journal of Economic Education, 51(2), 210, DOI: doi.org/10.1080/00220485.2020.1731382.

All clips and descriptions are used under Fair Use. If you know of a clip that is not on the site, feel free to submit it by clicking here. The clips are stored at www.criticalcommons.org along with many more videos that help teach economic concepts. Educators can apply for a free Instructor account with Critical Commons, which will provide download access to clips.