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Is There a Link Between Performance in International Economics Courses and Academic Success?
No full textThis paper uses a sample of 6,470 students and Maximum Likelihood Estimation to determine the relationship between grades received in international economics courses and academic success of business majors. The results indicate that the grades earned in international economics courses as well as the number of international economics courses are significant and positive determinants of students’ final GPA
Improving Student Performance in Business Statistics Courses with Online Assessments
No full textWe study the impact of online assessments on student performance in business statistics courses. We quantify the degree to which students take advantage of various online opportunities to improve their quiz grades and estimate its effect on in-class exam scores. We also study the perceptions of students regarding online assessments using anonymous surveys. We find that students believe that multiple attempts at online quizzes help them learn the material, and for the most part take advantage of these opportunities to improve their quiz grades. Furthermore, the effect on exam performance is positive and significant
Differences in Student Evaluations from Hybrid and Traditional Courses
No full textHybrid courses contain online elements in combination with reduced in-class seat time. This study examines differences in student evaluations from hybrid and traditional sections of an introductory course in economic and business statistics. In our hybrid course, face-to-face lectures are replaced with online lectures and class periods are conducted as question-answer and practice sessions. We find strong evidence that students mark down evaluation scores in the hybrid versus traditional format. Markdowns occur across all dimensions of the evaluation instrument
Gender-Based Trading: Evidence from a Classroom Experiment
No full textIs there a difference in the trading behavior of men and women? The question stems from research suggesting that men tend to be more overconfident than women, trade more and earn lower portfolio returns. Moreover, men appear to be less risk-averse than women. We present evidence from a student investment market simulation, Stock-Trak©, conducted in an upper division college finance cours
Parsimonious Expected Utility and In-the-Large Risk Premiums for the Undergraduate Curriculum
No full textExpected utility theory, Pratt and Arrow’s risk premium, and the Markowitz risk premium are based upon Von Neumann and Morgenstern’s five axioms of cardinal utility. The derivation of these measures from these axioms is generally considered too mathematically sophisticated for the undergraduate curriculum. This leaves a wide gap in the foundation of financial theory for the undergraduate. An alternative simplified presentation of expected utility that is suitable for the undergraduate curriculum, and that avoids the nuances and complexities of the traditional mathematically more complete derivation, is presented here. In addition, an easily derived in-the-large risk premium is shown to be the product of a simple geometric measure of concavity and the standard deviation of the gamble. An application to futures markets is presented as an illustration
Teaching Public Choice Economics in a Public Finance Course
No full textPublic choice economics is often considered a sub or a separate field from public finance. Traditional public finance courses focus on public goods, externalities, and the solutions to these issues with an emphasis on expenditure and tax policy, addressing different types of taxation at different levels of government. This paper provides a means of integrating public choice theory into a public finance course to highlight the differences in these fields, but also the complementarity. While traditional textbooks touch on political decision-making and themes of public choice, I will explain how an instructor could incorporate these themes throughout the course
Using the FRED Excel-Based Application to Improve Learning Outcomes in Economic Courses: From Student to Practitioner
No full textThis paper describes active learning strategies utilizing the recently developed FRED Excel-based application to bridge the gap between economic theory and empirics. The FRED Excel-based application permits students to collect, manipulate, and plot macroeconomic data within Excel. We propose using this application as a tool for students to test economic theories using real world data. We maintain that this learning-by-doing strategy is an effective way to improve learning outcomes in undergraduate economic classes. To illustrate the ease and benefits of using the FRED Excel-based application to support standard economic theories, we provide several sample assignments specific to an intermediate macroeconomics class
Using Twitter to Improve Student Writing
No full textThe economics pedagogy literature concerning the use of social media in the classroom is rapidly growing. This paper adds to the literature by providing initial evidence of the potential impact of using Twitter to improve writing about economics. Writing assignments before and after a series of Twitter assignments coupled with prompt feedback are utilized. A Principles of Macroeconomics course and two sections of an Intermediate Microeconomics course from two different institutions are used in the analysis
Teaching Collective Action Problems without Contextual Bias: The Red/Green Simulation
No full textCollective action problems are at the heart of many economic issues. Often, students have trouble comprehending how society ends up with a less than optimal outcome, and may incorrectly assume that someone must want the outcome that occurs. Correcting this error is made difficult by the biases that students bring to these issues. The Red/Green simulation demonstrates the tension between self-interest and the social good in a context-free manner allowing students to see that these sub-optimal outcomes may not be desired by anyone, but instead can result from unhealthy systems of incentives
The Topic of Socialism in University Principles of Economics Textbooks
No full textPolls show that socialism is more accepted by the public than in many decades. University-age students are especially enthusiastic about socialism. Do economics textbooks address this important topic? This research surveys twenty university principles texts\u27 coverage of socialism. We measure textbook coverage of socialism and characterize the coverage regarding various definitions of socialism and whether those definitions match current usages of the term. We also explore the coverage of the characteristics of socialism. We find that there is great variety in coverage, though scant coverage of the type of socialism that 49% of young people today view favorably