Justin Wolfers: Assigning Homework in a World with ChatGPT Justin Wolfers has been researching ways to use existing resources and new strategies to safeguard the integrity of assessment. In this webinar, he will share his initial discoveries and discuss what the future of assessment might become. WATCH SESSION NOW! ... View more

Q&A with Paul Krugman In this session, Paul Krugman will take questions from Ryan Herzog and Aisling Winston on the economic impact of AI and what it might mean for college graduates. Some early indications suggest that it will have a leveling effect — narrowing differences between star performers and the rest. On the other hand, there is some reason to believe it might reduce the demand for college graduates in general. Participants can submit questions beforehand and there will be a live Q&A included. WATCH SESSION NOW!   Register for Other EconEd Sessions! ... View more

AI’s Potential Impact on Labor Markets Betsey Stevenson brings her significant labor market expertise to the table in this session where she will discuss the elephant in the room - what is going to be the impact on labor markets from this technology? The talk will be followed by a live Q&A, so please consider questions you would like to ask Betsey beforehand. WATCH SESSION NOW!   Register for Other EconEd Sessions! ... View more

The Changing State of AI with Tyler Cowen Tyler Cowen has been immersed in the world of AI and has been a regular media go-to for all things AI. Articles he's written on the topic include opinion pieces such as "AI Experts Aren’t Always Right About AI" and "Could AI Help Us Humans Trust Each Other More?" for Bloomberg. In this webinar, he discusses where AI may take us in the near/long term and its overall economic impact. WATCH SESSION NOW!   Register for Other EconEd Sessions! ... View more

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

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