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The Test of Understanding in College Economics (TUCE) is a standardized test of economics knowledge performed in the United States which primarily targets principles-level understanding. We asked ChatGPT to complete the TUCE. ChatGPT ranked in the 91st percentile for Microeconomics and the 99th percentile for Macroeconomics when compared to students who take the TUCE exam at the end of their principles course. The results show that ChatGPT is capable of providing answers that exceed the mean responses of students across all institutions. The emergence of artificial intelligence presents a significant challenge to traditional assessment methods in higher education. An important implication of this finding is that educators will likely need to redesign their curriculum in at least one of the following three ways: reintroduce proctored, in-person assessments; augment learning with chatbots; and/or increase the prevalence of experiential learning projects that artificial intelligence struggles to replicate well.

While this may appear to be a good opportunity to bring real-life examples into the classroom and show how economics applies during a global pandemic, we advocate instead for a more cautious approach. One of the joys of teaching economics is that it can be applied to “everyday life,” but there are some moments in life where caution may be warranted. Published version

We outline an early-semester social activity designed to engage students with course material at an early point in the semester, but also to foster social and academic connections. Social engagement among students has been shown to have a positive impact on learning and the move to remote and online teaching has placed students in an environment lacking social opportunities. We provide formal and informal feedback of the events as well as extensions for additional social events that could be completed throughout the semester. Published version

This paper uses Netflix’s dystopian Korean-language drama series Squid Game (2021) to illustrate an active learning technique to support the teaching of game theory in undergraduate courses. The series is chosen because it demonstrates different games with which the characters have to engage as part of the narrative. Geerling, Mateer and Addler (2020) show that using popular films in class is an effective way to introduce and motivate the deeper learning of core game theory concepts. We build on this work by providing instructors with a menu of quick teaching scenes and extended teaching guides, from which they can freely select and adapt to their particular needs. These resources provide summaries of the scenes, links to the clips, key concepts, and assessment questions. This teaching material is suitable for use in both principles-level courses, where game theory is first introduced, and advanced-level courses. Published version

This paper builds on the existing literature, to expand the stock of “chalk-and-talk” alternatives and reduce the cost of implementing such alternatives. Specifically, the paper proposes three lesson plans that are based on a series of Breaking Bad scenes identified in Duncan, Muchiri and Paraschiv (2020) and featured as part of the associated online companion, BreakingBadEcon.com. The lesson plans rely on the economic content within the scenes to introduce and emphasize a notable array of microeconomic concepts while also facilitating the assessment of concept comprehension and student learning. Published version

The Teaching Economics with Moneyball website (https://www.moneyballsimulator.info/) includes material we have identified, created, and collated over the years and includes updates to a simulator that can be used to teach marginal revenue product. All material posted on the site is freely available to educators and submissions are encouraged. Published version

The Walt Disney Company, and its subsidiaries, are responsible for some of the most popular movies in existence. One of the things that makes the classic Disney movie unique is its soundtracks. Many of the movies have key songs that can be used to teach various economics concepts in the high school and postsecondary classroom. We provide three detailed lesson plans that outline how to use Disney music to teach foundational concepts, but also include a more extensive table that includes concepts covered in a variety of Disney songs. Published version

We examine the impact of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament on college students’ drinking behavior using a nationally representative sample of American institutions. While success in intercollegiate athletics may augment the visibility of a university to prospective students and thereby benefit the school, it may also have a negative effect on the current student body by influencing risky behavior, especially the consumption of alcohol commonly associated with game day festivities. Using the Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study (CAS), we find that a school’s participation in the NCAA Tournament is associated with a 30% increase in binge drinking and a 9% increase in self-reported drunk driving by male students at that school. The results suggest that this increase is not offset by less alcohol use before or after the tournament (intertemporal substitution) but instead seems to represent a net increase in the amount of alcohol consumed by students at participating schools.

Economic educators have been teaching with pop culture for decades, but until recently the focus was on English-based media. In this paper, we build on the work of Wooten et al. (2021b), who show how K-pop can be integrated into the principles-level curriculum. We develop three teaching guides that can be used to teach aspects of behavioral economics, game theory and indifference curve analysis – topics which are taught at the end of most principles-level courses but are also standalone upper-level courses. The three artists chosen – BTS, BLACKPINK and TWICE – have huge global followings. We hope this paper will contribute to the library of diverse and inclusive teaching resources while helping to address the deficit of resources available to instructors of upper-level courses. Published version

Parks and Recreation was a hit NBC showed that aired from 2009 to 2015. The show contains numerous examples of economic concepts and principles that can be used in the classroom. We outline 5 lesson plans on topics from the show that can be used to supplement an instructor's current teaching. Topics include comparative economic systems, market structures, government bailouts, government intervention, and labor market discrimination. All of the scenes are available online at EconomicsOfParksAndRec.com

Economic educators have been teaching with pop culture for decades, but the idea of using foreign-language teaching resources to create a more inclusive and diverse classroom has only recently been taken up. This paper builds on the work of Wooten et al. (2020), who have shown how K-pop can be integrated into an English-language classroom. We expand on that work by compiling a set of 12 teaching guides using material from 12 different countries that demonstrate economic concepts commonly taught in a principles of microeconomics course. Al-Bahrani (2020) has called on educators to take a deliberate approach to diversifying their lecture material. It is our hope that, with time, broadly diverse and inclusive media will be ubiquitous when students are introduced to economics.

This research discusses opportunities for educators to introduce popular media into their curriculum, particularly when discussing unionization and the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). We have identified a series of scenes in the NBC workplace comedy, Superstore, and provide discussion prompts for instructors to use as a review of their lesson on the NLRA. All scenes mentioned in the paper are available online for instructors to embed in their learning management systems or slide decks.

We provide 11 short exercises that can be used in a principles of microeconomics classroom which incorporate media clips from the Economics Media Library. The exercises have been used in both small and large classroom settings and take less than 15 minutes to complete. These teaching guides can be a helpful first step for educators interested in introducing small activities to engage students in the classroom.

Bitter Wine was the 23rd episode of the premiere season of the Emmy-nominated Western, Have Gun - Will Travel. Gun-for-hire Paladin settles an externality issue between a small scale vintner and neighboring oilman a la Coase, but two years before Coase's seminal paper. This 1958 episode acutely portrays the Coasian solution often taught in undergraduate courses. Incorporating this episode into the undergraduate curriculum can serve as a stepping stone for discussing the implications of transaction costs and the Coase Theorem.

The literature on active learning and engaging pedagogy has grown since the turn of the century when William Becker challenged the economics education community to be “sexier” in order to attract more majors. While the effectiveness of teaching methods has been understudied, the available resources to an interested educator has grown substantially. We survey the literature of active teaching techniques and resources as well as provide sources for aspiring educators wishing to enhance the relevance of their coursework.

Superstore follows a group of employees working at Cloud 9, a fictional big-box retailer in Missouri. The show also portrays an abundance of scenes that can be used to teach economics at the undergraduate level. We analyze four particular episodes that are rich in teaching content, but also provide a breakdown of scenes in the series that can be used to teach concepts.

Economic educators have been teaching with pop culture for decades, but no primary work has identified media from foreign-language sources. We provide three teaching guides that capitalize on the growth of Korean popular music and can be integrated into the principles curriculum. The three artists chosen – BTS, BLACKPINK and EXO-CBX – have huge global followings. Each online music video provides English subtitles and economic content. We provide summaries and discussion questions for educators wishing to use the music videos in their classroom.

As Major League Soccer (MLS) continues to award expansion franchises throughout North America, the league must be considerate of how new clubs may impact attendance levels at nearby clubs. Regardless of whether new MLS clubs are awarded to cities with strong North American Soccer League histories, league officials must be mindful of the effect that geographically close competitors can have on attendance. Perhaps stemming from the limited number of clubs in competition, MLS teams currently appear to operate as strategic complements to one another, increasing season-long attendance as teams locate closer to one another.

A push has been made over the past decade to utilize “short and sweet” media clips in the classroom to engage students with the material while being cognizant of shortening attention spans. While useful, short clips often lack depth and are often unable to connect topics across lessons. Longer video clips often have depth, but students may not be as engaged with the material. This paper presents a method of “breaking” longer clips into smaller clips to account for potential attention deficits and integrates classroom discussion in the middle of videos to engage students with the material.

URL: http://econkahoots.com Kahoot! is a game-based Internet platform that allows instructors to assess students on multiple choice topics in a variety of configurations. Kahoot! quizzes can be use...

A push has been made over the past decade to utilize “short and sweet” media clips in the classroom to engage students with the material while being cognizant of shortening attention spans. While useful, short clips may lack depth and not be able to connect topics across lessons. Longer video clips often have depth, but students may not be as engaged with the material. This paper presents a method of “breaking” longer clips into smaller segments to account for potential attention deficits and integrates classroom discussion in between segments to engage students with the material.

Modern Family debuted in 2009 and has since won 22 Emmys from 75 nominations. The show revolves around patriarch Jay Pritchett and his family. Characters on the show follow a mockumentary style by ...

Using examples in the classroom from current and past television shows and movies is becoming increasingly common. Being able to relate ideas back to a popular clip or episode allows the instructor to reach students in ways the traditional lecture cannot. Building on the work of Tierney, Mateer, Smith, Wooten, and Geerling (2016), this paper introduces five lesson plans tied to clips from The Big Bang Theory that can be used in high school (9-12) economics courses. Published version

Adam Ruins Everything is a self-proclaimed “half-hour information comedy show” that appears on truTV. The main goal of the show is to take topics and discuss how they are not as great as one might expect; for example, gift giving. In doing this, Adam Ruins Everything touches on many economics topics that are relevant to introductory-level courses. This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the network television show Adam Ruins Everything to aid instructors interested in adopting television clips into the classroom.