A Note on the Use of Simulation Games in Interdisciplinary Graduate Education

Abstract

The faculty member who organizes and conducts graduate seminars is likely to regard the above title as misguided if not ludicrous, because the serious and rigorous format of the graduate seminar is regarded by both students and faculty as necessary for the preparation of mature scholars. Hence, the idea of utilizing games as a motivating or learning device in graduate training is regarded as unnecessary and inappropriate, and a misallocation of scarce educational resources.' The purpose of this note is to suggest that some experimentation with the use of games may be warranted in the context of interdisciplinary graduate education. Although this suggestion is based on casual empiricism rather than a carefully controlled experiment, the results observed in an interdisciplinary experiment seemed exciting enough to suggest further investigation. An effort is made here to present as briefly as possible the nature of the experiment conducted and some of the results which illustrate the potential returns from the use of games in an interdisciplinary context. Each year I offer as part of the university's Ph.D. program in economics a graduate seminar on Investments in Man which examines the use of capital theory in evaluating investments in man in, for example, health, education, on-the-job training, information and migration. In the last several years, the nature of the most recent literature has made it both convenient and exciting to focus on these investments as antipoverty and antidiscrimination measures. Because the course description in the university catalog has the (fortunate or unfortunate) characteristic of appearing relevant, the seminar has consistently attracted graduate students from outside the Economics Department. These students come predominantly from sociology, public administration, community planning and political science, and while usually bright they experience some difficulty in assimilating the economist's framework. Last year I proposed that the group of students who were not Ph.D. candidates in economics might consider evaluating the socioeconomic characteristics of the game