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The Implementation of a Terminal Master’s Program in Applied Economics
No full textThis paper examines the impacts of transforming a traditional master’s program into a professionally-oriented, terminal degree program in applied economics. Alumni surveys were conducted before and after the curricular innovation and the results indicate that the change in program provided high quality training that alumni judged to be more relevant to the post-graduate work environment. This case study illustrates that master’s programs in economics can benefit by implementing curricular structures that explicitly serve terminal degree-seeking students while, at the same time, provide elements of training that students destined for the Ph.D. are unlikely to receive in a doctoral program
The Classroom as Policy Laboratory: Using a Classroom Simulation to Experience Macroeconomic Policy
No full textThis paper describes a classroom economic simulation. The simulation is similar to classroom experiments but is repeated, which allows for a less deterministic structure and gives students time to experience multiple roles. Students run the economy, from hiring their classmates to producing goods and buying them. Students also elect a class congress, which allows them to choose policies and experience the effects. As the simulation progresses, additional economic concepts and measurements are incorporated, including but not limited to GDP (real and nominal) unemployment, poverty, inequality, economic growth, investment, money supply, inflation and macroeconomic shocks
Teaching Students to Do Public Choice in an Undergraduate Public Sector Course
No full textThis paper discusses one approach to using writing assignments in an undergraduate public economics course to get students actively involved in doing public choice. Our goal is to provide an overview of the course and its writing assignments with an emphasis on how the scaffolding of assignments helps contribute to the development of interesting and publishable ideas in public choice. A course in public economics provides a good opportunity for an instructor to develop student interest in applied public choice
Using Student Produced Video Clips in Class
No full textThe author describes a teaching method using video clips of students teaching other students important economic concepts in class. This paper discusses the use of student- made videos to explain difficult concepts in economics. This simple exercise may offer an effective learning tool for a number of difficult concepts that students often struggle to master in the principles class
Obtaining Consistent Corporate Valuations
No full textIn an introductory finance course, students are introduced to the concept of equity valuation in the form of the constant growth dividend discount model. In advanced courses they are exposed to additional valuation approaches such as free cash flows, adjusted present value, residual earnings and economic profit models. Unfortunately students do not have the opportunity to go beyond the calculations and learn the basic assumptions of each model that will lead to consistent valuations regardless of which model they choose. In this paper, we value an example company using 6 models that lead to identical equity values
Economics of the World beyond the Textbook: Two Methods for Teaching
No full textVisiting historical sites, local markets, or businesses can help students in an economics class connect abstract ideas to three-dimensional realities. We relate our experience with two types of trips: one focused on regional history and one in which students visited representative businesses. With some guided questions, the students are able to identify the forces of supply and demand at work in their own lives and communities
Portfolio Optimization Incorporating the Capital Allocation Line: A Comprehensive Undergraduate Investments Course Project
No full textThis paper covers a project in which beginning investment students collect price and dividend data and calculate various returns for five companies, a fund and the stock market. After forming a portfolio they calculate risk measures, determine Jenson’s alpha, Sharpe and Treynor values and the return based on the Capital Asset Pricing Model. The students calculate two-stock frontiers and a frontier comprised of potentially all five stocks, incorporate the Capital Allocation Line (CAL) and determine the optimal portfolio. Finally, they calculate dollar amounts to invest in the riskless asset and risky stocks to accomplish dominant points on the CAL and determine if margin trading is necessary for a specific dominant portfolio
Using R Programming in a Financial Derivatives Course
No full textR is a popular and free programming language and software environment for statistical computing and graphics. We use a class project in an undergraduate financial derivatives course to introduce students to R programming. Specifically, through pricing options using the Black Scholes model and the multi-period binomial option pricing model, students learn to import and manipulate data in R, use R to do calculations, construct user-defined functions, and apply third-party packages in R. The inclusion of relevant technology through this project also serves to maintain our curriculum currency, and we obtain overwhelmingly positive student responses to the project
Using Cluster Analysis in Financial Services: A Teaching Case
No full textA teaching case appropriate for students in finance, analytics, or related areas is presented for applying cluster analysis to the financial services industry. Based on a real case (modified for confidentiality), it presents students with a real-life scenario where cluster analysis is the appropriate tool to use for addressing a business problem. A credit marketing problem is presented, and incorporates the idea of predictive modeling within clusters. A top-down approach is taken to teach cluster analysis, with the business application and interpretation of results presented first, followed by the algorithm and other details
A Student Fund in a One-Hour Lab
No full textFirst-hand experiences considering relevant research are used to examine the benefits and difficulties in implementing a studentmanaged investment fund through a repeatable one-hour lab format at a small regional state university. Implementing a student-managed fund in a lab format with fewer hours than a regular course reduces demands on faculty teaching load as well as on available hours in a student’s academic program. The multi-semester approach allows a stepwise progression of learning over multiple semesters, but its major difficulty is managing the mix of student skill levels