Eastern Economic JournalPub Date : 2023-01-01Epub Date: 2023-03-16DOI: 10.1057/s41302-023-00242-5
Karla Borja, Suzanne Dieringer
{"title":"Telling My Story: Applying Storytelling to Complex Economic Data.","authors":"Karla Borja, Suzanne Dieringer","doi":"10.1057/s41302-023-00242-5","DOIUrl":"10.1057/s41302-023-00242-5","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Our experience with business and economic students indicates limited understanding and confidence when working with macroeconomic data such as unemployment rate, labor force participation rate, business cycles, and price indexes. To close this gap, the authors have developed and evaluated a college classroom experiential activity defined as the Storytelling Project (SP) conducted in nine principles of economics courses in a mid-size private university over a period of two years during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the SP, students wrote personal stories that assisted them in connecting with their audience and then visually presented complex economic data. A workbook supplemented the SP with learning objectives, tasks, multiple examples of data analysis, storytelling techniques, and videos. Participants completed a self-efficacy and attitude survey of perceived cognition, confidence, and motivation and took an assessment to evaluate cognitive competencies. The survey and assessment results were compared against students who did not complete the SP. Our results indicate that the SP and the workbook are effective experiential learning activities that improve data analysis and communication skills among college students. Students show more confidence and motivation in macroeconomics and data analysis at the end of the semester. Knowledge or cognitive competency is ranked higher among those completing the SP.</p>","PeriodicalId":45363,"journal":{"name":"Eastern Economic Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10019412/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9570684","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Eastern Economic JournalPub Date : 2023-01-01Epub Date: 2023-04-20DOI: 10.1057/s41302-023-00248-z
Marketa Halova Wolfe
{"title":"Incorporating Racial Justice Topics into an Econometrics Course.","authors":"Marketa Halova Wolfe","doi":"10.1057/s41302-023-00248-z","DOIUrl":"10.1057/s41302-023-00248-z","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Racial justice has been at the forefront of the public discourse, and although economists in academia have been coming to the realization that racial justice is not adequately addressed in the undergraduate economics instruction, topics related to race and racism remain rare in economics courses. This paper shows how to incorporate racial justice topics into an econometrics course. Students select journal articles about race in the economy, present the articles to the class and lead a discussion. Students benefit by strengthening their econometrics skills and using evidence-based approach to gain knowledge of the role that racism has played in the economy.</p>","PeriodicalId":45363,"journal":{"name":"Eastern Economic Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10116440/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9570688","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Eastern Economic JournalPub Date : 2023-01-01Epub Date: 2023-03-04DOI: 10.1057/s41302-023-00239-0
Sahar Milani
{"title":"Teaching Environmental Macroeconomics to Undergraduate Students.","authors":"Sahar Milani","doi":"10.1057/s41302-023-00239-0","DOIUrl":"10.1057/s41302-023-00239-0","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Since environmental economics is typically under the umbrella of microeconomics, there is less emphasis on macroeconomic issues in undergraduate-level environmental economics textbooks. This presents a significant content deficiency because it limits the discussion of global environmental policy and growth. In this paper, I propose a simplified version of Brock and Taylor (J Econ Growth 15(2):127-153, 2010)'s \"green\" Solow model that is accessible for undergraduates. I assume that the growth rate of emissions is equal to the growth rate of capital per effective worker in addition to several omissions. The result is a restatement of the model that requires no calculus or differential equations to understand. I also discuss how this stand-alone content can be taught to students of different skill levels and in various class formats as a complement to empirical applications.</p>","PeriodicalId":45363,"journal":{"name":"Eastern Economic Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9985435/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9570686","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Eastern Economic JournalPub Date : 2023-01-01Epub Date: 2022-10-21DOI: 10.1057/s41302-022-00225-y
Aaron Pacitti, Michael Cauvel
{"title":"Rent-Seeking Behavior and Economic Justice: A Classroom Exercise.","authors":"Aaron Pacitti, Michael Cauvel","doi":"10.1057/s41302-022-00225-y","DOIUrl":"10.1057/s41302-022-00225-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Rent-seeking behavior is when individuals or firms acquire above-market returns by exercising economic and political power. We introduce an active-learning exercise, with discussion questions and extensions, to illustrate implications of rent seeking for efficiency, equity, economic justice, and democracy. Students act as corporate decision makers allocating resources among physical, financial, and political investment. Instructors use the results to highlight distinctions between productive and nonproductive activities, and ways in which individual firm incentives may differ from socially optimal firm behavior. This allows for discussions of broader issues, such as how rent seeking can undermine democratic ideals and perpetuate inequality.</p>","PeriodicalId":45363,"journal":{"name":"Eastern Economic Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9589811/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10412542","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"An International Exercise to Increase Awareness of How Market, Political, and Cultural Institutions Affect Economic Activity","authors":"K. Combs, Monica E. Hartmann, Joseph L. Kreitzer","doi":"10.1057/s41302-022-00233-y","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1057/s41302-022-00233-y","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45363,"journal":{"name":"Eastern Economic Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-12-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48858572","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Introduction to the Symposium on Teaching Economics: Innovations in Times of Uncertainty","authors":"Cynthia Bansak, Julie K. Smith","doi":"10.1057/s41302-022-00234-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1057/s41302-022-00234-x","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45363,"journal":{"name":"Eastern Economic Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-10-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45451145","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Effectiveness of Logical Distractors in an Online Module","authors":"Diego Mendez-Carbajo","doi":"10.1057/s41302-022-00232-z","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1057/s41302-022-00232-z","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45363,"journal":{"name":"Eastern Economic Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-10-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49505715","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Developing Students’ Analytical and Data Presentation Skills Using Infographic Assignments in Principles of Macroeconomics and Economics of Immigration","authors":"Eva Dziadula","doi":"10.1057/s41302-022-00226-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1057/s41302-022-00226-x","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45363,"journal":{"name":"Eastern Economic Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-10-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43633511","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}