One associate editor's perspective on classroom experiment articles is detailed in this article. The associate editor provides recommendations for manuscripts for the Instruction (those that describe new classroom experiments) and Research (those reporting studies into the efficacy of classroom experiments as a pedagogical tool) Sections of…

Although recent research strongly suggests that L. Frank Baum did not write "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" as a monetary or political allegory, the Populist-parable interpretation of his book remains a tremendous teaching tool in economics classes. The author offers some background on the rise and fall of the Populist interpretation, in recognition…

Adam Smith used the metaphor of an invisible hand to represent the instincts of human nature that direct behavior. Moderated by self-control and guided by proper institutional incentives, actions grounded in instincts can be shown to generate a beneficial social order even if not intended. Smith's concept, however, has been diluted and distorted…

The author argues that the college textbook market provides a clear example of monopoly seeking as described by Tullock (1967, 1980). This behavior is also known as rent seeking. Because this market is important to students, this example of rent seeking will be of particular interest to them. (Contains 24 notes.)

In a recent article, Smith and Yates (2003) argued that regulators could gain additional information about the optimal number of permits to issue from two-sided markets. The author argues that they are incorrect in their assertion because the market they refer to is an asymmetric two-sided market in which individuals are only allowed to decrease…

The author disagrees with Homer Simpson who claims that "...cartoons don't have any deep meaning. They're just stupid drawings that give you a cheap laugh." He argues that The Simpsons have a deep meaning in the same way as the works of Jonathan Swift and George Orwell. The message in The Simpsons, Swift, and Orwell is that those in charge do not…

The author extends the work of Holt and Laury (1997) on a simple noncomputerized card game for teaching the essential aspects of public goods theory. He suggests a course of several lectures and discusses the behavior of subjects in various game sessions. Among other things, the results provide experimental evidence with respect to the private…

The author suggests methods for teaching game theory at an introductory level, using interactive games to be played in the classroom or in computer clusters, clips from movies to be screened and discussed, and excerpts from novels and historical books to be read and discussed.

How well does competitive theory explain the outcome in experimental markets? The authors examined the results of a large number of classroom trading experiments that used a pit-trading design found in Experiments with Economic Principles, an introductory economics textbook by Bergstrom and Miller. They compared experimental outcomes with…

The author has chosen three major topics in development economics for a discussion on how to teach the subject: the concepts and measurement of development, models of growth and development, and the international aspects of economic development. For the concepts of development, it is important to emphasize the coherence of the topics to be…

Fifty years ago what was taught in the principles of economics course reflected reasonably well what economists did in their research. That, however, is no longer the case; today what economists teach has a more nuanced relation to what they do. The reason is that the economics profession and the textbooks have evolved differently. The author…

Most people learn to drive without knowing how the engine works. In a similar vein, the author believes that students can learn economics without knowing the algebra and calculus underlying the results. If instructors follow the philosophy of other economics courses in using graphs to illustrate the results, and draw the graphs accurately, then…

In Australia, the authors learned it is common to ask one or more conference participants to summarize and assess the conference in a final "closing" session. They found the experience of serving as "closers" strangely similar to what students are asked to do in providing an overall assessment of a course or instructor at the end of a semester. By…

The author describes a classroom game demonstrating the process of adjustment to long-run equilibrium in a market consisting of price-taking firms. This game unites and extends key insights from several simpler games in a framework more consistent with the standard textbook model of a competitive industry. Because firms have increasing marginal…

The authors argue that the textbook treatments of the constant term in regression analysis vary extensively and are often neglectful, incomplete, or even incorrect. Given the potential importance of the constant coefficient in theoretical and applied work, they develop the factors biasing the estimation of the constant term to support the argument…