The primary purpose of this study is to assess student-level impacts of a problem-based instructional approach to high school economics. The curriculum approach examined here was designed to increase class participation and content knowledge for high school students who are learning economics. This study tests the effectiveness of Problem Based…

With the current economic slump possibly the deepest since the Great Depression, interest in the subject of macroeconomics has reignited, and the number of students majoring in economics has increased during the last two years. While this would appear to be good news for educators in the economics field, the profession is nervous about more than…

The author evaluated the effect on student performance of using a new information technology (IT) enhancement that permits students to participate in the recording of lectures that can be downloaded later from the Internet. The author compared two sections of the same Intermediate Microeconomics class and observed the sample students to be…

The author offers innovative approaches to 3 topics that are typically only briefly mentioned (if at all) in money and banking courses. The first topic is a Treasury bill auction experiment in which students have an opportunity to participate directly. The results from a class of 14 money and banking students are used to explain how an instructor…

This is the first study of technical efficiencies of higher education institutions and the first study evaluating performance at faculty level in Turkey. The study also compares technical efficiencies of private and public institutions. Estimation shows low overall efficiency with high variations across the faculties of economics. The results also…

The authors describe a Web-based classroom experiment with two assets: cash and a stock that pays a random dividend. The interest rate on cash, coupled with a well-chosen final redemption value for the stock, induces a flat trajectory for the fundamental value of the stock. However, prices typically rise above this value during a session. The…

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…

Monotone methods enable comparative static analysis without the restrictive assumptions of the implicit-function theorem. Ease of use and flexibility in solving comparative static and game-theory problems have made monotone methods popular in the economics literature and in graduate courses, but they are still absent from undergraduate…

The present paper studies the general equilibrium implications of two types of education policy in an overlapping generations model. We examine education transfers, which augment inherited private education spending, and public investment on economy-wide human capital, which provides externalities to individual human capital accumulation. The…

This article reports on the trends in undergraduate economics degrees from 1991-2007. Undergraduate degrees in economics awarded by U.S. colleges and universities enjoyed a substantial upward trajectory for seven consecutive years from 1997 through 2004, accumulating a 57 percent rise over the seven years. But, like all good things that eventually…

The problem of this study was to determine the number of first semester college freshmen who could correctly identify the individuals who are generally considered the "fathers" of communism and capitalism. A questionnaire was administered to 241 freshmen students enrolled in English 101, College Reading and Writing, at Texas A&M…

Historians work in a discipline with few inherent concepts and are obliged to draw upon many fields in recreating the past. Yet authors of most school history texts, state and national standards and curriculum materials seldom incorporate economic analysis in their work. Just look at state standards that include Adam Smith and John Locke but draw…

This article argues that participative approaches, such as those found in enterprise or entrepreneurship education, allow several factors to influence learning activity. The "Mini-enterprise" (Young Enterprise) approach is one where students set up and run their own business during a school year. This article is based on the analysis of…

In order to enhance economic education in ways that are consistent with the liberal education perspective, the catalyst function of education needs to be supported more fully. The content of what is taught will, and should, be determined by individual professors and schools. Ideally, the "right" content will be taught passionately. But this is…

The authors detail an urban economics experiment that is easily run in the classroom. The experiment has a flexible design that allows the instructor to explore how congestion, zoning, public transportation, and taxation levels determine the bid-rent function. Heterogeneous agents in the experiment compete for land use using a simple auction…