Laboratory-based experimental and demonstration initiatives in teaching undergraduate economics.

Economics is characterized by well-developed predictive theories of human behavior. A wide variety of empirical tests of models based on those theories have been developed, as well as extensive and reliable data bases to test theories. Thus, one can experiment with and simulate economic behavior. For these reasons, the conventional lecture-discussion format may be the least effective way to teach economics. Rather, the most effective teaching method may be as a laboratory science. Authors report on recent efforts to convert economics to a true, experimental, laboratory social science. The project at Denison University is a demonstration since its design does not have a randomly assigned control group. All economics majors in the program at Denison took part in the project. Using a classical random experimental design, Washington State University is testing the conversion of introductory micro- and macroeconomics courses from a standard lecture and discussion format to a lecture and laboratory format that integrates the principles of active learning with personal computers, data on actual economic behavior, and in-class economic experiments.