3. Standing on the shoulders of giants If Adam Smith can inspire us as economists he can also inspire us as teachers of economics. Here’s what an inspired Woodrow Wilson said of Smith: –“He constantly refreshed and rewarded his hearers...by bringing them to those clear streams of practical wisdom and happy illustration which everywhere irrigate his expositions.”

4. What is surprise side economics? Lecture ideas to make economics –Less abstract –More intuitive –More relevant –More memorable Combines entertainment with education –Element of surprise gives advantage to “live” lecture –Multimedia: animated slides, audio, video, on-line Active learning component –Small group “work-outs” in class –Live experiments: participate or watch live demo Not for everybody!

5. OLD NEW Ideas for teaching: No single way is best for all OLD NEW

6. 03_08A PRICE QUANTITY 05101520 140 160 180 200 220 240 260 280 300 Equilibrium price rises Equilibrium quantity rises Demand curve Supply curve New intersection New demand curve

7. I bet you wonder how I knew about your plans to make me blue with some other guy you knew before. Between the two of us guys you know I love you more. It took me by surprise (drive me crazy), when I found out yesterday. Don’t you know that...

8. Could you sketch the supply and demand diagram by hand?

9. 08_05 QUANTITY AT C

10. 08_05 QUANTITY AL

11. 08_05 BE QUANTITY

12. 0 BE QUANTITY AL AT C

13. Economies of Scale

14. IT’S MACRO IT’S MACRO Put on your Big Picture Glasses

15. We will answer their demands for a gold standard by saying to them: You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns. You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.

16. WELCOME TO A school for central bankers. Dedicated to teaching the science and art of monetary policy.

17. A case where macroeconomic principles were given low weight in the economic policy decisions

18. To get a gut-feeling for the idea of comparative advantage, let’s imagine 2 people with 2 skills: lawyer economist

19. Survey Question Do you learn more going to a live lecture or watching online? I learn more online 15% I learn the same online versus in lecture 42% I learn more by attending the lecture in person 44%

20. Active learning in large lectures Classroom experiments Small group work

21. Classroom experiments in large lectures Partial class participation –Example: double oral auction –Some students participate as buyers and sellers on stage –Rest of the class observes how the market works Total class participation –Example: free rider experiment

22. Free rider experiment Students invest fixed number of tokens in private account and/or public account Public account yields a higher interest rate, but the dividends are shared with everyone Six rounds No communication Results posted after each round Break for communication between rounds 3 and 4 Cash prize for one randomly selected person

23. Free rider experiment Fall 1999-2000

24. Free rider experiment and learning Students quickly recognize similar phenomena in different settings Strong impression in the minds of the students “I believed in humanity… until today!”

25. Small group work in large lectures Important characteristics: –“SGW mode” verbal and audiovisual clues example: Economic Jedi –very small groups: pairs (with neighbor) –very focused: one small problem or subset of a problem, not a big discussion –very short: 90 seconds to 3 minutes –share findings with the whole class

26. Economic Jedi: The mystery of increasing poultry consumption (1) Why has consumption of chicken and turkey increased so dramatically over the last several decades? Small groups: –Draw initial equilibrium in poultry market –In the same graph, show what could have happened to explain the increase in the consumption of poultry

27. Economic Jedi: The mystery of increasing poultry consumption (2) Alternatives: –increase in demand: consumers are more health conscious and have switched from red meat to poultry. –increase in supply: cheaper ways of raising chicken and turkey and getting them to the market How would you check which hypothesis is true?

28. Economic Jedi: The mystery of increasing poultry consumption (3) Between 1950 and 1990 the real price of poultry decreased from $2 to $0.80 per pound. Changes in supply were more important. Mystery solved!

29. Assessment Results –More small group work and discussions improved performance –Peer review and the additional reading did not improve performance

30. END