Most people learn to drive without knowing how the engine works. In a similar vein, the author believes that students can learn economics without knowing the algebra and calculus underlying the results. If instructors follow the philosophy of other economics courses in using graphs to illustrate...

The authors attempt to clarify the concepts of, and the link between, fixed costs and sunk costs. They argue that the root for possible confusion between fixed costs and sunk costs is the inconsistency in defining the term fixed costs. They define fixed costs uniformly as the costs that are...

The author presents a classroom version of the popular research game called the Ultimatum Game. Researchers are placing growing importance on how fairness affects behavior, and this experiment provides a useful, fun, and engaging way in which a day or two of class time can be spent on the topic....

The authors reply to Colander’s comment in this issue on their earlier article (Wang and Yang 2001). They emphasize the necessity to define fixed cost differently than sunk cost because fixed vs. variable costs and sunk vs. avoidable costs classify the total costs from two different...

The authors examine concurrent enrollment programs (CEP) as an effective means of teaching college economics in high school. They describe the establishment of the National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships to set national standards for CEP. They also investigate the performance of...

The determination of college students' academic performance is an important issue in higher education. Whether students' attendance at lectures affects students' exam performance has received considerable attention. The authors conduct a randomized experiment to study the average attendance...

The author provides an economic analysis of tradable pollution permits by clarifying the derivation of permit supply and demand relationships and connecting those concepts to permit trading for the case of two polluters. Using the standard comparison of costs and benefits, he makes the marginal...

The authors describe the Business Conditions and Economic Analysis (BCEA) program developed at the University of Richmond. The BCEA program is an experiential learning format for economics students built on the success of student- managed investment funds (SMIF) in finance. In its initial...

In 1996, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) changed the method used to calculate measures of real GDP from a Laspeyres or Paasche index to a Fisher ideal index, also called a chain-weight index. Even though this is a significant change in approach and has resulted in extensive revisions of...

Students in a large principles of macroeconomics class were asked to predict their performance on a regularly scheduled midterm examination. The author collected and analyzed data to examine the effect of various demographic characteristics, academic endowments, course preparation, and course...