Teaching 2 Year and 4 Year Students Teaching 2-year vs 4-year students: what works, how are they the same, how are they different? Eric and Erika have extensive experience teaching students Principles of Economics at both 2-year and 4-year institutions. In this webinar, they will share their top takeaways and best practices for each demographic. Join us to learn what works across these populations and what can be better customized to meet student needs. WATCH SESSION NOW!   Access other EconEd Sessions! ... View more

Teaching Business Cycles - A Modern Approach The macroeconomic model that we inherited from the 1960s no longer works for today's economy or today's students. In this talk, Professor Wolfers will introduce two modern approaches. The first is to switch the standard model with a method of teaching AD-AS that both reflects the modern economy and links with modern macroeconomics. The second approach replaces the AD-AS model by emphasizing the method that modern macroeconomists take, focusing on an IS-MP analysis (an updated version of IS-LM), which connects to the Phillips Curve. The key, Wolfers argues, is to provide an authentic account of the modern macroeconomy that reflects ongoing policy discussions, media debates, and higher-level classes.. WATCH SESSION NOW!   REGISTER FOR FUTURE ECONED 2023 SESSIONS! ... View more

Join us at EconEd to be a part of compelling conversations on how the way we teach economics has changed and what we can learn from this new landscape. Even though EconEd will be online this year, you can still expect the most relevant and pertinent topics, as well as engage in the sharing of teaching insights. Interested in attending? Follow the link here and then choose "Register Now." You'll have the option of signing up for as many virtual sessions as you'd like to attend.  Any questions on how to use Zoom? Find out more here! ... View more

You Shift My Aggregate Demand (song parody) AP Econ students parody ACDC's "You Shook Me All Long", replacing lyrics with economic concepts. ... View more

Widget production Students have fixed capital and must create ëwidgetsí (folded and stapled paper); labor is increased in each round. Resulting production data is used to calculate total, marginal and average production and costs. [decreasing marginal product/increasing marginal costs] For large classes, can be done with a sub-set of students as a demonstrations for the rest of the class. There are many ways to vary this activity by varying the good produced (e.g., this variation is about making peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches).   ... View more

Why are some nations wealthy? (cooperative learning) Students work in groups to analyze macro data and predict which nations are rich and which are poor. For larger classes, can have multiple groups for each country (just have an equal number of groups for each country) and then pair up groups for trading. With larger classes, could collect individual answers with clickers.   ... View more

Which President generated the highest budget deficits? (demonstration) Students use CBO data to calculate and rank budget deficits for several presidential administrations. Can be completed individually or in groups.   ... View more

Which Came First - Democracy or Growth? Students calculate real and nominal GDP and GDP per capita for three countries and analyze the differences. [note: lesson also discusses growth and the role of economic freedom; can be broken up depending on how the instructor wants to use the material] With larger classes, could collect individual answers with clickers   ... View more

Where is my money? (demonstration) Students identify what is, and is not, money, and rank the liquidity of different assets. Students work individually but could also compare responses with peers.   ... View more

At the start of each school term, office supply stores tend to offer fantastic deals on school supplies. The following ad is a great example to show. Show this ad after you discuss how elasticity affects total revenue, and then ask "If school supplies are an inelastic good, why would stores discount them instead of raise prices to maximize total revenue?" This is a good way to introduce the idea that office supply stores use these ads to draw customers into the store. Indeed, some customers will buy only the school supplies on sale, which would result in a loss for the store. But as long as one out of every 5 or 10 customers who comes in buys a printer, office chair, or other higher priced item, the store would more than make up for the loss leader. I then use this example to calculate the cross-elasticity of demand for substitutes and complements. ... View more

Market efficiency is perhaps one of the most important topics in any principles course.  Yet the very related concepts of consumer and producer surplus are two of the most difficult topics for students to grasp.  They are difficult because of the high level of abstraction required from students in order to master them; in particular consumer surplus. Yet, it is critical for students to understand these concepts well if they are to understand market efficiency and deadweight loss.  So I usually have one overriding goal when teaching market efficiency to principles students: how can I make the deadweight loss concrete enough for them? The case study of the market for organs (for instance the market for human kidneys), is a great way to achieve this goal.  I usually like to begin the discussion referring to a famous article in the NYTimes describing the now famous (or infamous), auction of a human kidney on ebay. After describing the auction for students, I present the following clicker question to them: Take a guess of how much was the bidding for this auction when e-bay took it down three days after it started: a) 25K b) 100K c) 200K d) 1 million e) More than 1 million Students are always shocked to learn the auction for a kidney had reached almost 6 million in two days! From this point the discussion could go in many different and very interesting directions: Why did ebay took down the auction? Answer: as you know, it is illegal in the U.S. to sell your organs. Why does the U.S. ban the sale of organs? Answer: many possible answers. But, probably the reason has to do more with ethics than with economics.  It is interesting, though, that the sale of blood is not prohibited. Is the market for organs in this country efficient? Clearly not.  Usually the number of donors is way below the number of people waiting for an organ.  In the market for kidneys, the waiting time is about 3.5 years, which is many times longer than what the patient could wait.  The best place to get data on this market is the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network.  They offer real time data on the demand and supply data for human organs. What is consumer and producer surplus in the market for kidneys?  What happens to producer surplus when there is no way to legally profit from selling an organ? What can we do to increase the efficiency in this market? What is the deadweight loss in this market?  How does advances in medicine change the deadweight loss in this market? The answer to this last question is what makes this case study fundamentally useful to teach this concept. In this market, deadweight loss is not an abstract idea, but it is actually human lives! ... View more

Unemployment compensation (experiment) Students particilate in a double-oral auction in markets for skilled and unskilled workers, with and without government intervention. ... View more

Traditional vs. Shadow Banking Modern economies rely heavily on financial intermediaries to channel funds between borrowers and lenders. In this issue, the role of traditional banking is outlined and a parallel system—shadow banking—is explored. Article and follow-up questions are included. ... View more

Hamilton's National Bank In this lesson from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, students participate in two rounds of a role play to help them understand the role of banks in facilitating economic growth through loans. Round 1 is conducted without a bank. After the first round, students read excerpts from Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton’s 1790 report to Congress in which he proposes a national bank because the United States had few banks at the time. Students then conduct Round 2 of the role play with a bank. After the round, students read excerpts from and summaries of the statute creating a national bank, Thomas Jefferson’s opposition, and Hamilton’s rebuttal. Lesson Plan and PowerPoints Included. ... View more

This is a very simple experiment I designed to demonstrate the diminishing marginal returns problem for my students.  I welcome any feedback. https://www.economicsnetwork.ac.uk/iree/v7n1/vazquez-cognet.pdf Vazquez-Cognet, Jose (2008) The Production of Mathematical Problems: A Diminishing Marginal Returns Experiment  International Review of Economics Education 12/2008; 7(1):103-116. ... View more