The economic theory of natural resource exploitation predicts that scarcity crises will not arise because forward-looking resource owners will smooth their extraction over time to maximize their profits. The model providing this result can seem opaque and technical to students, but its intuition can be learned from experience. The author shares a…

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 authors propose a classroom experiment implementing a simple version of a New Keynesian model suitable for courses in intermediate macroeconomics and money and banking. Students play as either the central bank or members of the private sector. The central banker sets interest rates to meet twin objectives for inflation and the output gap or to…

The concept of negative externality is central to the teaching of environmental economics, but corrective taxes are almost always regressive. How exactly might governments return externality-correcting tax revenue to overcome regressivity and not alter marginal incentives? In addition, there is a desire to achieve a double dividend in the use of…

The Coase Theorem is a fundamental tenet of environmental economics and is taught to thousands of principles of microeconomics students each year. Its counterintuitive conclusion, that a Pareto optimal solution can result between private parties regardless of the initial allocation of property rights over a scarce resource, is difficult for…

In this article, the authors describe a simple classroom game that demonstrates the advantage of tradable emissions permits in regulating environmental pollution. Students take on the role of polluters who must consider the costs of complying with a uniform reduction and a tradable permits program. The class is divided into high-cost polluters and…

In this article, the authors outline a classroom exercise involving goldsmiths designed to improve undergraduate students' understanding of how banks create money. This concept is important to macroeconomics and money and banking courses, yet students frequently struggle with it, largely due to the nonphysical nature of deposits and reserves.…

The concept of sustainable development is used in everyday life by the general public, alongside researchers, institutions, and private companies. Nevertheless, its definition is far from being unequivocal. Clarifying the outline of the concept seems necessary. We have created a role-play for this purpose. Our article aims at depicting its main…

Although many students have some knowledge of patents, it can be difficult for them to understand the components of an innovator's decision-making process. Key issues, such as whether to patent or to use trade secrecy, how broad a scope to claim, and what to do in the event of patent infringement, can be difficult to grasp from a standard lecture.…

The authors present a simple classroom experiment that can be used as a teaching device to introduce important concepts of organizational economics and incentive contracting. First, students take the role of a principal and design a contract that consists of a fixed payment and an incentive component. Second, students take the role of agents and…

Describes a one-semester economics course in which students assume the role of key figures in the development of economic thought, ranging from the mercantilists through the early neoclassicists. Structures class discussion thematically rather than chronologically, so characters are conversationally engaged in each class. (DSK)

Argues that role playing may engage students more effectively than lectures, but the risk of role play is that students often wander from the intended central themes. Presents part of a scripted role play from an environmental-economics course to illustrate how scripting offers a solution to this problem. (DSK)

Presents a classroom simulation in which one firm pollutes the water used by another. Includes a detailed outline and discussion of the preparations and materials required, and the procedure for running the simulation. Argues that students learn how property rights provide a market solution to pollution costs. (DSK)

Use of a variety of student groupings and teaching techniques in a course designed by the authors has led to high student interest and accomplishment, as indicated by attitudinal and subject-matter tests. (IM)

Describes an international economics course in which the culminating activity is a simulated General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) conference. Discusses the simulation phases and their timing, as well as modifications for using the simulation in other international-economics settings. Presents student evaluations of the course. (DSK)