In this engaging game, students
assume the role of Vikings who have returned to the medieval
outpost of Birka to trade loot from villages they’ve plundered.
Playing cards represent the loot--spades, hearts, diamonds, and
clubs. To play effectively, students must use marginal
analysis to determine whether prospective trades will benefit
them, probe constantly for mutually beneficial exchanges that
remain to be exploited, and bid more for cards that are relatively
scarce.
This game
demonstrates the advantages of price allocation over other methods.
Students are told that a hurricane has caused a major power outage.
This increases the equilibrium price of ice. In the first
round of the game, however, the price of ice is frozen at the
pre-hurricane level and allocated on a first-come, first-served
basis. In the second round, the ice is allocated by price,
with no waiting.
This is a
series of short classroom games that encourage students to apply
the supply and demand model to labor markets. The games are
patterned after The Price is Right, a long-running game
show on CBS that asks contestants to guess the prices of various
goods. In this version, students guess the median earnings
of different occupations and predict which will grow the fastest.
It’s a fun way to acquaint students with different occupations
and help them understand how earnings are related to training,
talent, and other factors.
This simulation demonstrates how
the Fed can decrease or increase the money supply through open
market operations, and how the banking system can create money in
a fractional reserve system. Students serve as bankers and
members of the public and use balance sheets to record banking
transactions through several rounds of loans and deposits.
This income
distribution game is based on a thought experiment suggested by
philosopher John Rawls. Rawls asks us to imagine that
members of a society are completely unaware of their endowments
and place in society, a state he calls the “original
position.” While in such a state, people do not know if
they will gain or lose from policies that promote equality.
According to Rawls, the social contract that would emerge from
this process would be impartial and fair, and therefore ethical.
This
classroom simulation illustrates some basic principles of
international finance. Students are grouped into four
countries, which are endowed with goods (candy), stock, and
domestic currencies. During a brief trading session,
students can use their currency to buy domestic goods and assets,
or they can convert it into foreign exchange and buy foreign goods
and assets. When the trading session ends, students use
tables to record each country’s net exports, net foreign
investment, foreign exchange transactions, and balances on current
and capital accounts. The tables demonstrate that net
exports and net foreign investment are equal, and show the
relationship between a country’s current account and capital
account balances.
Also see Games
Economists Play, a collection of non-computerized games for
college-level courses.
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