This article is not the usual Excel pedagogy fare in that it does not provide an application or example taught via a spreadsheet. Instead, it briefly reviews the history of spreadsheets in the economics classroom and explores the current environment, with an emphasis on modern learning theory. The conclusion is not surprising: spreadsheets improve…

Simple problems of discrete-time optimal control can be solved using a standard spreadsheet software. The employed-solution method of backward iteration is intuitively understandable, does not require any programming skills, and is easy to implement so that it is suitable for classroom exercises with rational-expectations models. The author…

Maintains that computer-assisted instruction built around a spreadsheet-based model can illustrate and simplify some of the more difficult concepts concerning economics and fisheries. Describes a software program that illustrates overcapitalization, asset fixity, resource rent capture, economic optimum, and sustainable yield. (MJP)