Although many decisions involve a stream of payoffs over time, political scientists have given little attention to how actors make the required tradeoffs between present and future payoffs, other than applying the standard exponential discounting model from economics. After summarizing the basic discounting model, we identify some of its leading…

Generation Y students (born after 1982) have developed a different set of attitudes and aptitudes as a result of growing up in an IT and media-rich environment. This article has two objectives: firstly to discuss the learning styles preferred by generation Y students in order to identify the effect of these preferences on tertiary education in…

In this study we investigated the effects of two treatments supplementing students' (16 to 18 years of age and in pre-university education) regular course in economics. One treatment, labelled concept treatment, aimed at the solidification of the students' knowledge about economic concepts and their interrelations. The other treatment, labeled…

Interest in using classroom experiments to teach economics is increasing whereas empirical evidence on how experiments affect learning is limited and mixed. The author used a pretest-posttest control-group design to test whether classroom experiments and grade incentives that reward performance in experiments affect learning of introductory…

The authors bring together two research streams in the literature that examine separately the effectiveness of using experiments in the principles classroom and the relationship between different personality types and student achievement. Using a sample of 255 principles of microeconomics students, 48 of whom were enrolled in sections that relied…

There is a gender imbalance in undergraduate economics departments with most departments educating a strong majority of young men. This imbalance has led many economists to ponder the question of why relatively few women choose to take courses and major in economics. Our hypothesis is that the gender imbalance in undergraduate economics,…

The in house development of an online assessment tool, OASIS, has provided a unique opportunity to research the use of online assessment in teaching and learning across the university. The developing relationship between IT staff, educational designers and academics serves as a model for integrated and evolving management systems which demonstrate…

The authors document the types of undergraduate colleges and universities attended by those who earned a doctorate in economics from an American university from 1966 through 2003. They examine relationships between type of undergraduate institution and attrition and time-to-degree in PhD programs. The total number of new economics PhDs awarded to…

The author examines the effects of different introductory microeconomics textbooks on student performance in subsequent economics courses (specifically, Intermediate Microeconomics I and Money and Banking). In some cases, the effects are significant and sizeable. There is also evidence of other variables affecting student performance in later…

The authors address two informal writing assignments implemented in introductory economics classes. One assignment involves students writing short reflection papers, and the other assignment involves students writing short journal entries for a designated period of time. Both assignments are designed to help students realize that economics is…

This paper describes the method of assessing the outcomes of students' training in the Economics of Health Care course at the Albany College of Pharmacy (ACP). The following sections will: (1) describe the course and the various techniques that were used to ensure that the course outcomes were achieved, (2) explore the literature on assessment…

This study investigated the level of degree to which the home Economics teachers developed value internalization and commitment for the implementation of the National Junior Secondary School Home Economics Curriculum (NJSSHEC). It also determined the state and qualification influence on the level of degree of value internalization and commitment…

The author advocates the application of experiential learning in economics courses at the tertiary level. The author evaluates a range of learning methods, both passive and active, in a student survey that provides data on undergraduate attitudes to various class activities. The results indicate a clear student preference for learning activities…

In this study, we attempt to determine the extent to which students enrolled in economic courses benefit from extensive use of modern technology based teaching/learning tools such as electronic slide presentations. Our results are mixed. We find more support for the traditional teaching pedagogies as compared to what is being customarily used in…

We measure the distributive justice preferences of students within eight departments in the faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Turku, Finland. We use the Finnish government's annual budget and its specific appropriations as a proxy to measure the students' underlying preferences. We test whether the type of studies of the respondents…