Use Of Review Videos To Reinforce Basic Concepts In Economics,
2026
Rollins College
Use Of Review Videos To Reinforce Basic Concepts In Economics
Journal of Economics and Finance Education
Short, weekly review videos were incorporated into two sections of introductory Microeconomics. These videos represent a form of technology for students to review concepts already covered, rather than in the initial teaching of material. The purpose of these videos was to improve the knowledge and comprehension levels of learning for the material, thus providing space for increased breadth and depth in the classroom. Students in the class had a positive reception to the video, as show in the high level ofutilization throughout the semester. Additional analysis did not find a statistically significant impact on student performance.
Mimic Excel,
2026
Rollins College
Mimic Excel
Journal of Economics and Finance Education
Although Excel is an excellent tool to teach finance, some of its properties really confuse my students, such as its sign convention and no clear explanation accompanying an error message. In addition, typing =fa(0.1,2,0,100) offers no clue about the formula being used. In this short paper, I will replicate several common Excel functions with and without sign convention. The beauty of functions without sign convention is that they come directly from our textbooks. In other words, an exact formula will accompany a result. When typing =rateExcel(3,10,100), we will see the same error message plus a short explanation.
Common Resource Bargaining: A Collective-Action Game,
2026
Rollins College
Common Resource Bargaining: A Collective-Action Game
Journal of Economics and Finance Education
We present an intuitive, time-efficient common pool resource game set in a flexible framework that illustrates collective-action conflicts. The game's interactions demonstrate that not all economic markets yield privately or socially efficient results. Students own tracts of land with access to oil. In the first (optional) stage, students manage the resource rights; in the second stage they make resource extraction decisions. Students' understanding of markets deepens via the conflicts from interdependency versus incentives in common resource allocation. Economic issues addressed include collective action, contracting problems, game theory and externalities.
Utilizing Fantasy Sports To Enhance Student Learning,
2026
Rollins College
Utilizing Fantasy Sports To Enhance Student Learning
Journal of Economics and Finance Education
Over the past 20 years, participation in fantasy football has increased dramatically. During this timeframe, many universities have encouraged instructors to diminish the importance of the traditional "lecture format" in the classroom. Many institutions have begun to insist that the most effective teaching involves active student participation rather than one-way communication (Rocca 2010). This paper discusses the implementation of a semester-long fantasy football exercise that is primarily designed to require students to demonstrate their understanding of strategic management and basic economic principles by mandating they apply those principles to situations such as an auction draft and labor disputes.
Using The Automobile Lease To Illustrate Topics In Corporate Finance,
2026
Rollins College
Using The Automobile Lease To Illustrate Topics In Corporate Finance
Journal of Economics and Finance Education
Despite the growing popularity of consumer automobile leases, they remain poorly understood by many consumers. This teaching note describes a possible spreadsheet assignment based on an ordinary automobile lease advertisement. With careful analysis of the proposed lease, several important fmancial concepts are revealed, including: internal rate of return, net advantage to leasing, opportunity cost, sunk costs, liquidity, equivalent annual cost, crossover rate, and real option value. By using the familiar and relatable auto lease example, student engagement with the material is improved. The examples and associated problems given are suitable for intermediate-level students of managerial finance, personal finance, or capital …
Bond Duration: Constructivist Learning Using Excel,
2026
Rollins College
Bond Duration: Constructivist Learning Using Excel
Journal of Economics and Finance Education
Duration is significant in that it summarizes a bond or a portfolio's sensitivity to interest rates. Based on the constructivist learning approach, we propose an Excelbased assignment that encourages student interaction and active learning which leads to individual discovery regarding the properties of bonds and their effects on duration. Students receive immediate feedback by constructing dynamic Excel tables and figures to calculate duration for bonds with various maturity terms, coupon rates, yields to maturity, and frequencies of coupon payments. The constructivist approach to teaching bond duration is valuable because it requires students to actively acquire and construct knowledge.
A Classroom Property Title Experiment,
2026
Rollins College
A Classroom Property Title Experiment
Journal of Economics and Finance Education
Economists such as de Soto (2000) posit that property titles are among the institutions that enhance human well-being. This paper presents a classroom property title exercise in which students may uncover for themselves the potential benefits of property titling on residential investment incentives. Players are faced with a series of rounds in which they must choose to build a low quality or high quality dwelling. Players are initially titleless squatters, but some property titles are randomly distributed between rounds. In each round, players receive a payoff from their housing investment but untitled properties also run the risk of confiscation.
A Faculty-Driven Approach To Starting And Operating A Student Managed Investment Fund,
2026
Rollins College
A Faculty-Driven Approach To Starting And Operating A Student Managed Investment Fund
Journal of Economics and Finance Education
Student managed investment funds have proven to be very strong learning experiences that bridge the gap between class-room finance knowledge and hands-on application of financial theories and tools. Though more widely utilized now than in the past, there are still many schools that do not offer such a program for students. This paper describes the approach utilized at one school to start, evolve, and operate a student managed investment fund. The experience gained from over twenty years of developing a program and experimenting with various approaches can be useful to faculty members and schools looking to implement such a program.
French Fried Potatoes As Lecturecraft: A Lesson On Product Homogeneity In Competition From Five Guys®,
2026
Rollins College
French Fried Potatoes As Lecturecraft: A Lesson On Product Homogeneity In Competition From Five Guys®
Journal of Economics and Finance Education
This study provides an interesting vignette for using the Five Guys® French fry for discussing an aspect of market structure - that of product homogeneity - in the economics principles classroom. In our view, this vignette is not only both clear and concise, it also allows for the use of humor in what is perhaps an otherwise dry lecture/discussion.
Bootstrap Simulation With Spreadsheet Application,
2026
Rollins College
Bootstrap Simulation With Spreadsheet Application
Journal of Economics and Finance Education
This study provides an easy and effective way to simulate distributions of future stock price and return. Using a bootstrapping approach for simulation, we generate one thousand different scenarios for Google's price after one year and the corresponding percentage return. The simulated return distribution provides a comprehensive risk-return profile that includes probabilities associated with achieving a specific return in these uncertain times. We explain and create an excel template showing the bootstrapping simulation that can be readily used in finance classrooms. Using the same methodology, students can conduct their own simulations of different assets and compare their risk-return tradeoffs.
Choosing Political Rules Under Rule Utilitarianism: Constitutional Political Economy And The Moral Foundations Of Capitalism,
2026
Rollins College
Choosing Political Rules Under Rule Utilitarianism: Constitutional Political Economy And The Moral Foundations Of Capitalism
Journal of Economics and Finance Education
Economics is positive analysis. Undergraduates, however, are ultimately interested in economics because it informs normative worldviews. Many undergraduates begin, at least implicitly, with consequentialism (and, more specifically, utilitarianism) as an ethical framework. Principles-level analysis informs what Yeager (2001) refers to as act utilitarianism, but exploring broad political ethical questions with act utilitarianism is problematic. I argue that the alternative rule utilitarianism is preferable and can be informed by a constitutional political economy analysis. I give examples based on Buchanan and Tullock's (1962) framework for considering government decision-making rules.
Teaching Students To "Do" Public Choice In An Undergraduate Public Sector Course,
2026
Rollins College
Teaching Students To "Do" Public Choice In An Undergraduate Public Sector Course
Journal of Economics and Finance Education
This paper discusses one approach to using writing assignments in an undergraduate public economics course to get students actively involved in doing public choice. Our goal is to provide an overview of the course and its writing assignments with an emphasis on how the scaffolding of assignments helps contribute to the development of interesting and publishable ideas in public choice. A course in public economics provides a good opportunity for an instructor to develop student interest in applied public choice.
Teaching Mathematical Economics Using Public Choice: The Median Voter Model,
2026
Rollins College
Teaching Mathematical Economics Using Public Choice: The Median Voter Model
Journal of Economics and Finance Education
The median voter model (MVM) is a core model in public choice comparable to the demand and supply competitive market model in microeconomics. In this paper I introduce and discuss the mathematical treatment of a simple version of the model. This allows instructors to apply a wide range of concepts commonly introduced in a first undergraduate class in mathematical economics. The approach will help students to understand the interplay of concepts separately introduced during the first phase of the course. Hopefully the method will foster an interest in public choice through the study of one of its most important benchmark …
Political Failure In The Short- And Long-Run,
2026
Rollins College
Political Failure In The Short- And Long-Run
Journal of Economics and Finance Education
This paper reviews the use of public choice throughout my principles of macroeconomic course. I highlight the numerous avenues that public choice can be used to explain macroeconomic policies and their consequences. These include fiscal, monetary, and trade policy and economic growth and development. By emphasizing the self-interested behavior of public officials, public choice can illuminate both shortand long-run macroeconomic outcomes.
Can Public Choice Theory Help Make Classroom Macroeconomics More Useful?,
2026
Rollins College
Can Public Choice Theory Help Make Classroom Macroeconomics More Useful?
Journal of Economics and Finance Education
Classes in macroeconomics typically present versions of the dynamic aggregate demand/ aggregate supply framework to analyze short term fluctuations and optimal monetary policy responses to economic conditions. In these models an output market equilibrium condition is usually combined with a short run Phillips Curve and a monetary policy reaction function. Output, inflation and real and nominal interest rates are shown to respond to (exogenous) supply and demand shocks and interact with one another over time. These models fail to incorporate the fact that policymakers must be modeled as responding to their incentives given their constraints. Policy isn't usefully modeled as …
Teaching Public Choice Economics In A Public Finance Course,
2026
Rollins College
Teaching Public Choice Economics In A Public Finance Course
Journal of Economics and Finance Education
Public choice economics is often considered a sub or a separate field from public finance. Traditional public finance courses focus on public goods, externalities, and the solutions to these issues with an emphasis on expenditure and tax policy, addressing different types of taxation at different levels of government. This paper provides a means of integrating public choice theory into a public finance course to highlight the differences in these fields, but also the complementarity. While traditional textbooks touch on political decision-making and themes of public choice, I will explain how an instructor could incorporate these themes throughout the course.
Teaching Public Choice At The Master's Level,
2026
Rollins College
Teaching Public Choice At The Master's Level
Journal of Economics and Finance Education
This article summarizes the pedagogical approaches I have taken in teaching public choice in a course that enrolls advanced business school undergraduates (majors in economics, mainly) as well as master's students in economics and political science. It starts with a brief overview of the field and then describes the course's content. I reproduce a recent syllabus and two representative homework assignments. Some learning "modules" are suggested and ways of evaluating students' mastery of public choice principles are discussed.
Using Film Clips To Teach Public Choice Economics: Take Two,
2026
Rollins College
Using Film Clips To Teach Public Choice Economics: Take Two
Journal of Economics and Finance Education
Recent years have seen a trend away from "chalk and talk" toward alternative pedagogical approaches to teaching economics. Media clips, in particular, have been touted as a way to provide students with memorable and exciting exposure to economic concepts. Media clips are especially well-suited for teaching public choice economics because of the plethora of films and television shows depicting government activity. This paper documents how clips from popular movies and series such as "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" and "House of Cards" can be used to teach public choice economics.
Ways Of Teaching Public Choice: Introduction To The Symposium,
2026
Rollins College
Ways Of Teaching Public Choice: Introduction To The Symposium
Journal of Economics and Finance Education
This symposium intends to shed light on distinctively public choice approaches to economic education. This introductory essay provides an overview of this symposium and its contributors. We first provide our rationale and motivation for assembling the special issue. We then describe the papers and their interactions.
The Joy Above All Joys: Roland D. Sawyer’S Socialism For The Working Class,
2026
University of New Hampshire, Durham
The Joy Above All Joys: Roland D. Sawyer’S Socialism For The Working Class, Maggie R. Buglino
Roland D. Sawyer Scholarship Papers
Following the Industrial Revolution, Americans were required to adapt to the nation's new capitalistic society. Witnessing the subsequent struggle of working-class families, 20th century Christian socialist Roland D. Sawyer was resolved to advocate for a reformed economic structure. This paper is dependent entirely on primary sources in the Roland D. Sawyer Collection, available in the University of New Hampshire's Milne Special Collections. Studying Sawyer's autobiography and various socialist writings illustrates his idea of a good life for the American working-class and how they were to achieve it through the adoption of a socialist doctrine. Throughout his activism, he encouraged Americans …
