The authors present a Web application they designed in the R programming language as an experiential learning tool for teaching production theory. The app simulates production decisions where a manager is tasked to find the optimal mixture of inputs through experimentation. Users of the application are instructed to use calculations and intuitions…

In this article, the authors describe an interactive classroom simulation that helps students learn some of the most important ideas from models of international trade with heterogeneous firms. Students make entry/exit decisions for individual firms with different marginal costs of production. The simulation consists of five rounds, beginning with…

The 3-equation model by Carlin and Soskice (2014) introduces the current consensus in modern monetary macroeconomics to undergraduates through a static framework in which adjustment occurs via the monetary policy rule of an inflation-targeting central bank. In this article, the authors present a dynamic extension of this model and an Excel-based…

The authors of this article propose a classroom simulation designed for advanced economics or finance courses whereby student teams role-play Moody's sovereign credit risk analysts. Despite the importance of sovereign credit risk ratings in affecting the funding liquidity of countries, the process generating ratings is a black box. The authors use…

The economics curriculum today does not emphasize the study of population. This needs to change immediately because we are in the midst of another demographic sea change, slamming on the brakes right after a rapid acceleration during the last half of the twentieth century. Instead of glibly tossing a dependency ratio onto a slide, this article…

The authors of this article describe an adaptation of the rent-seeking game by Goeree and Holt (1999) to the recruiting of athletes by NCAA Division I football and basketball teams. Students engage in an effort-based lottery, i.e., recruiting to sign a blue-chip prospect. The winner gets the prize--the player's marginal revenue product in excess…

In 2016, Walstad and Wagner developed a procedure to split pre-test and post-test responses into four learning types: positive, negative, retained, and zero learning. This disaggregation is not only useful in academic studies; but also provides valuable insight to the practitioner: an instructor would take different mitigating actions in response…

In this article, the author presents a price-takers' market simulation geared toward principles-level students. This simulation demonstrates that price-taking behavior is a natural result of the conditions that create perfect competition. In trials, there is a significant degree of price convergence in just three or four rounds. Students find this…

In the authors' 2011 "JEE" article, "Estimating Gender Wage Gaps," they described an interesting class project that allowed students to estimate the current gender earnings gap for recent college graduates using data from the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). Unfortunately, since 2012, NACE no longer…

Students in sports economics courses might better learn the basic concepts by running their own franchise. A simple game, based on the card game War, is easy and inexpensive to implement. Students quickly grasp the importance of weighing marginal benefits, both in terms of team record and marginal revenue, against the costs of improving their…

In recent years, there has been some dispute over the appropriate way to model decision making in professional sports leagues. In particular, Szymanski and Kesenne (2004) argue that formulating the decision-making problem in a noncooperative game leads to radically different conclusions about the nature of competition in sports leagues. The author…

The authors describe an in-class exercise in which students participate in an auction to buy US Airways. The exercise is based on events of late 1995, in which neither United nor American Airlines decided to bid for US Airways. Two teams of students participate in an English auction. Students learn that the equilibrium of the sequential game is…

One of the most important challenges facing college instructors of economics is helping students engage. Engagement is particularly important in a large-enrollment Principles of Economics course, where it can help students achieve a long-lived understanding of how economists use basic economic ideas to look at the world. The author reports how…

The author introduces a simulation of counter-cyclical interventions that highlights important issues surrounding the practice of government intervention. The simulation provides experiential insight as to why economists have long debated the degree of persistence exhibited by disequilibrating shocks and connects this debate to discussions about…

The author outlines a classroom tariff-setting game that allows students to explore the consequences of import tariffs imposed by large countries (countries able to influence world prices). Groups of students represent countries, which are organized into trading pairs. Each group's objective is to maximize welfare by choosing an appropriate ad…