The authors describe a classroom game used to teach students about the impact of reputations in markets with asymmetric information. The game is an extension of Holt and Sherman’s lemons market game and simulates a market under three information conditions. In the full information...

Dynamic models are increasingly used in economics, especially in macroeconomics. However, the skills required for constructing and analyzing dynamic models are advanced relative to those required for static models. Consequently, dynamic models are difficult to introduce into courses where the...

The author describes a classroom game demonstrating the process of adjustment to long-run equilibrium in a market consisting of price-taking firms. This game unites and extends key insights from several simpler games in a framework more consistent with the standard textbook model of a...

The author explains how optimal-control problems can be solved with a common spreadsheet such as Microsoft Excel. He illustrates the method with several examples ranging from simple models to quite advanced topics. The method is intended to be beneficial to students and teachers working with...

The author introduces some basic dynamic programming techniques, using examples, with the help of the computer algebra system Maple. The emphasis is on building confidence and intuition for the solution of dynamic problems in economics. To integrate the material better, the same examples are...

In this article, the authors update their previous study of terminal master’s degree in economics programs to determine whether changes in the characteristics and students or the desired outcomes of master’s programs have occurred during the decade between the two studies. The...

The authors assess the impact of foreign graduate teaching associates (GTAs) on undergraduate economics instruction where the standard language for the majority of students is English. They find little evidence that foreign GTAs adversely affect grades in economics principles courses or...

Students are interested in lecture examples and class exercises involving data connected to the maiden voyage and the sinking of the liner Titanic. Information on the passengers and their fate can be used to explore relationships between various tests for differences in survival rates between...

Unit-root testing strategies are unnecessarily complicated because they do not exploit prior knowledge of the growth status of the time series, they worry about unrealistic outcomes, and they double- or triple-test for unit roots. The authors provide a testing strategy that cuts through these...

Simple problems of discrete-time optimal control can be solved using a standard spreadsheet software. The employed-solution method of backward iteration is intuitively understandable, does not require any programming skills, and is easy to implement so that it is suitable for classroom exercises...