Introductory Economics Course Research Articles

Bringing breadth and relevance to introductory economics courses using JEL codes

The author of this article describes an exercise for introductory economics courses in which students are exposed to the breadth of economic study using JEL codes. JEL codes have historically been used to classify economic subject matter and ultimately document the ever-evolving scope of economics. This discussion assignment provides an opportunity for students to better understand what economists study and identify aspects of the field that are relevant to them. The article concludes with a roadmap for instructors wishing to draw on the students’ initial activity responses throughout the course to maintain student relevance and interest.

Improving introductory economics course content and delivery improves outcomes for women

The presentation of economics in introductory courses has been highlighted as potentially exacerbating the underrepresentation of women in economics. The authors study the impact of a gender-neutral change in content and instruction in introductory economics courses intended to increase student engagement. By implementing meaningful applied problems and structured group work, their intervention focuses on the students’ perceptions of “what” economics is and “how” economics is used. Using institutional data from 8,727 students over nine semesters, they find that the intervention improved women’s grades relative to men’s in both Introductory Microeconomics and Macroeconomics and eliminated underperformance by women in Introductory Macroeconomics relative to men at baseline. These effects are evidence that course content and delivery impact the experiences and outcomes of female students in economics education.

Who watched pre/post-lecture tutorial videos? Does flipped learning help beginners in economics?

The modern-day classroom is characterized by academic diversity, with students from varied backgrounds and with different levels of prior knowledge. To cater to the diverse abilities of students, this paper explored the use of flipped learning as a teaching approach in an introductory economics course. We investigated the effectiveness of 40 pre-lecture videos covering basic concepts and 27 post-lecture tutorial videos focusing on practice in improving students' exam outcomes, especially for beginners in economics who may require more support from instructors than other students. We collected data about video engagement and students' grades in progress assessments. Surveys were conducted to gather students’ feedback regarding the usefulness of the videos on their learning. The findings showed that beginners engaged more with those videos, spent more time watching them compared to non-beginners. Furthermore, the study observed an improvement in beginners' exam performance, with their average grade increasing as a percentage of the average of non-beginners. These findings hold significance for instructors aiming to offer personalized assistance to students with varying levels of prior knowledge, thereby advancing educational practices in the field of economics.

CORE Econ: a Neoclassical Synthesis for the twenty-first century?

This paper provides a critical review of CORE Econ’s The Economy and associated materials. It argues that there is a need for reworked economics textbooks and that CORE Econ’s approach to this project – to replace mathematical abstractions with relevant real-world economics and to overcome the free market bias of introductory economics course – is well-founded. It is argued that The Economy contains a wealth of material which, in the hands of a sophisticated teacher, could form the basis of excellent introductory and intermediate economics modules. Despite this, however, the paper argues that the newly charted path through the economics discipline – using game theory and market imperfections as the entry point – is not easy to traverse. The demotion of Marshallian supply and demand is welcome and overdue, but its replacement is not yet fully formed. The CORE Econ authors’ claim that they present a unified model in which microeconomics and macroeconomics are coherently integrated – a new Neoclassical Synthesis – is overstated. In particular, the paper argues that students who do not have substantial access to tutoring and mentoring will find the text hard. Those students with only limited guidance and support – due to large cohorts, outside commitments or other reasons – are likely to struggle to learn directly from the text. For this reason, The Economy may favour stronger students and elite institutions over those further down the academic hierarchy. Most fundamentally, it is argued, the issues that surface in The Economy go beyond the specific implementation of a textbook, and reflect problems with the discipline itself. The Economy reflects the view that all economic problems can ultimately be understood in terms of individual optimisation. This assumption is highly controversial. A deeper rethink of how we teach undergraduates in economics is needed.

Applying Bandura's Theory of Self-Efficacy to assess the perceptions of Pre-service Economics teachers concerning teaching using graphs

This qualitative study examined the Self-efficacy perceptions of preservice economics teachers regarding teaching with graphs. Understanding graphs have a major role in future teaching practices however learners find it challenging understanding economics graphs. Using a structured interview of 55 pre-service secondary school teachers, economics self-efficacy items by Bandura self-efficacy framework was used to analyze the data. The study found that student teachers are not confident to teach using graphs but have positive attitude to learn how to plot and interpret graphs. The teaching practices of high school teachers were found to have influenced the low-self-efficacy of most of the participants though they look forward to teaching using graphs. Most participants agreed that plotting, understanding, and interpreting data from graphs as well as presenting information graphically are key skills that all economics teachers and students should master. The research concludes that both high school economics teachers and preservice teachers should be equipped with the necessary skills to understand graph presentation because they both grapple with interpreting and plotting graphs. The research contributes to improving the way graphs are taught because economics teachers must be comfortable with graph presentations. Higher education institutions should increase their effectiveness when teaching introductory economics courses by finding creative ways to help students understand graphical representations of economics content. It is recommended that Teacher Education programs should emphasize the importance of graphs in the teaching of economics and empower student teachers with the necessary skills.

Reality-oriented critical learning using the CORE in introductory economics courses: cognitive engagement and economic literacy

Reality-oriented critical learning using the CORE in introductory economics courses: cognitive engagement and economic literacy

Improving long-term retention: promoting distributed practice in an introductory economics course

This paper reports on a classroom experiment that tested whether increased use of a pedagogical approach known as distributed practice can lead to enhanced long-term retention of material covered in an Introduction to Economics course. In a distributed practice approach, students are encouraged to learn course material over a longer period of time and to keep coming back to the same material more than once. This contrasts with more traditional pedagogical approaches that effectively encourage students to cram for exams in a short space of time. Students in a class that made more frequent use of comprehensive exams across a semester, and students in a class that employed a more traditional assessment structure, re-took an exam on core economic concepts one year after the end of semester to test their long-term retention of these concepts. Results from this experiment indicate a positive correlation between post-semester test scores and participation in the section that used more frequent comprehensive exams, controlling for parental education, the taking of other economics courses, original course grade, and other relevant variables. These results suggest the effectiveness of the high-frequency assessment strategy and the associated distributed practice approach to learning. Implications for future work are also considered.

Understanding sex differences when majoring in economics: what little we know, reasons for knowledge gaps, and a research agenda of unanswered questions

We provide a comprehensive review of what research on U.S. students and institutions has revealed about women’s decisions to persist in the economics major, and we identify key avenues for future research. We first document gender differences in introductory economics course enrolments and persistence in the major. We then explore commonly cited reasons for this gender gap in economics, including issues within the profession (chilly climate), the major (role models, quantitative emphasis), and classroom environment (grade sensitivity, relevance). Throughout this review we identify gaps in the existing research, focusing on the lack of generalizability of existing findings. Lack of generalizability arises because of the use of convenience data, including single institution administrative retrospective data. Based on this background, we offer a research agenda that would greatly enhance our understanding of why female students attrite at higher rates at each step of the major.

Learning by ruling: Use of videogames to simulate public economics management

The potential of serious games as powerful educational tools to achieve multiple learning outcomes, is commonly accepted. This study describes an active-learning educational activity based on three videogames for use in introductory economics courses to facilitate understanding of public economics management in three different levels of governance: local, national, and international. A post-activity survey and an essay are used to assess the student's perception of the usefulness of the method to achieve several learning outcomes. The results suggest that digital game-based learning strategies have the potential to help students understand the complexities of public economics management at different government levels. The combination of these three games also contributes to make the learning experience more enjoyable, increasing overall student satisfaction and fostering the acquisition of the key learning outcomes that are expected of graduate students in the areas of economics, business, and management, with a focus on sustainability. In this context, since students feel more engaged and find the activity interesting, this can lead to better learning outcomes.

Anxiety, Test-Taking Aid, and Test Scores: Evidence from Economics Classes

Using data collected over five years for an introductory economics course, this study investigates the relationship between anxiety, test-taking aid, and test performance. The results show that test aid is associated with a 0.21 standard deviation increase in test scores. Although anxiety decreases test performance, accounting for anxiety does not eliminate the significant impact of test aid. The positive impact of test aid has heterogenous effects. Test aids play a moderating role in reducing unwanted stress while maintaining test integrity. Our results suggest that the effect of high anxiety may have implications for a student's academic trajectory.

In‐person versus online instruction: Evidence from principles of economics

AbstractCOVID‐19 required many professors to switch from in‐person teaching to online instruction, allowing exploration of a pivotal question in education: are learning outcomes better when instruction takes place in‐person or online? We compare student performance across two semesters of the same large introductory economics course—one taught in‐person in 2019, the other taught online in 2020. We analyze test scores from over 2000 students for exam questions common to both instructional formats. At the aggregate level, we find no difference in student performance between online and in‐person instruction. When dividing questions by required reasoning skills, we find that online instruction improves student performance on questions requiring knowledge of a definition or formula. Additionally, student course evaluations rated the online course over in‐person pedagogy.

Diversifying the ‘Great Economists’: An Assignment to Promote Inclusivity and Belongingness in Introductory Economics Courses

ABSTRACT In this paper, I present an innovative assignment designed to promote inclusivity and belongingness in the undergraduate economics classroom while also allowing students to gain familiarity with prominent economists and understand how their economic contributions are embedded within social, historical, and political contexts. Students are asked to create a presentation in which they give a biography of a ‘Great Economist,’ explain in detail one of the economist’s major contributions, and relate that concept to current course content, the economist’s life, and their own lives. To diversify who is considered a great economist, I have students choose from a pre-set list of economists and associated contributions. Purposefully curating a list of economists allows for the representation of a wide range of pluralistic and mainstream economic perspectives in addition to social identities and lived experiences, which students discover through their research. The assignment is structured to promote significant learning following Fink’s Taxonomy of Significant Learning and informed by key principles of feminist and critical pedagogy. I provide an instructional overview of the project, including recommendations for implementation in a face-to-face or online learning environment, considerations for crafting a list of economists, and end with observations from my own experiences.

Evaluation of the mixed-mode teaching design upon students’ learning satisfaction and academic performance in an introductory economics course

The Covid-19 pandemic has had a major impact on the various facets of higher education globally. With the migration to online teaching happening at an unprecedented rate, educators are challenged in transforming the way they create opportunities for students’ learning. Specifically, in Australia, education providers have increasingly offered their courses in a dual-mode setting, making them available for both online and face-to-face students. This paper presents the design of a specific type of dual-mode teaching, referred to as mixed-mode teaching used in an introductory economics course at X University. The aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of the mixed-mode teaching in creating an equitable learning experience for the online and face-to-face groups of students enroled in the course. Such an approach should then translate into there being no significant difference found in the academic performance of the two cohorts. In this study, we used the non-parametric Wilcoxon test and Kruskal-Wallis test to verify if a significant difference exists in learning satisfaction. Further, we utilised regression with dummies, and four different approaches of propensity score matching estimation in excluding self-selection bias, to evaluate differences in academic performance. Our results suggest no statistically significant differences in both the learning experiences and academic performances of our two groups of students. At a time when higher education is facing ongoing challenges presented by the pandemic, these findings offer useful insights for economics educators as well as those in higher education about how to enhance students’ academic performance and learning experience through more equitable, consistent course design.

The Effect of Gender on Study Effort: Nudges Versus Market Incentives

In an educational field experiment, I study the role of peers’ study habits (a social norm nudge) and for-credit assignments (a market incentive) on student study effort and learning outcomes. I randomize students in a large-enrollment introductory economics course into one of four treatments: for-credit practice problems only, information about successful peers’ study habits only, for-credit practice problems paired with peer information, and control. The 2x2 experimental design allows me to assess whether peer information and for-credit incentives act as complements or substitutes. I find that for-credit alone works significantly better than peer information alone to improve study effort. Interestingly, peer information works better for men than women. The interaction of the study incentives works best to improve study effort for women. The findings of this study inform micro-targeted educational choice architecture which could help narrow gender performance disparities in economics courses. JEL Classification: C93, I24, J16, D84, A22

Gender Differences in Economics Course-Taking and Majoring: Findings from an RCT

We use an RCT at an elite public university to evaluate whether undergraduate students in introductory economics courses could be nudged to pursue economics further. Two treatment arms provided information and framed the economics major as either having wide applicability or high financial returns. Both treatments nudged men to take more courses similarly, with no effects on women. Women with a lower-than-expected introductory course grade reduced course-taking in response to either treatment; men in this position were nudged to take more courses. Men with female TAs were also nudged to take more courses, while women were not.

A for effort: Incomplete information and college students’ academic performance

Students form beliefs about their expected performance based on incomplete information about the past distribution of grades. This may lead students to sub-optimally choose their level of effort and ultimately harm their actual academic performance. Using a field experiment, this paper examines the impact of randomly exposing students to accurate instructor-level information about the past distribution of grades in an introductory economics course. We find that while the intervention had a small positive impact on students’ average test scores, it improved the likelihood of passing the course by 10 percentage points. In addition, the results indicate that moderate-achievers, females, and students from higher-income households are most likely to benefit from treatment. The intervention also favored the students who had high expectations about their performance in the course and those with stronger priors about the expected grade distribution.

Locus of control, self-efficacy, and student performance in an introductory economics course

In the Principles of Microeconomics course taught during the Fall Semester 2019, 88 students participated in the completion of two questionnaires and a survey describing their demographic and academic profile. The two questionnaires included the 29 items of the Rotter Locus of Control Scale and the 10 items of the Schwarzer & Jerusalem Generalized Self-Efficacy Scale. The paper is intended to show that locus of control and self-efficacy are two distinct constructs not only in their influence on student performance but also in their student profile interaction. Using the Locus of Control Scale, the class was divided by a median split of 12 into two equal-sized groups. The results show that internals (lower score) had a higher average exam score, had a higher cumulative GPA score, spent more time working, attended classes more often, and scored higher on the self-efficacy scale than externals (higher score). Using the Self-Efficacy Scale and dividing the class by a median split of 3.2 into equal-sized groups, high self-efficacy students had a higher average exam score, took more high school economics courses, and were internally oriented, as compared to the low self-efficacy students. Of the 88 students participating in the survey, 30 students were identified as having both low locus of control and high self-efficacy and 33 students were identified of having both high locus of control and low self-efficacy. The results show that the 30 students had a higher average exam score, had a higher cumulative GPA score, were more of white ethnicity, and took more high school economics courses, as compared to the 33 students. For the whole sample, the correlation coefficient between locus of control and self-efficacy groups is negative and highly significant. The regression results show that the locus of control variable has a negative and significant effect, while the self-efficacy score has a positive and significant effect on the exam average. The adjusted R square value increased markedly with the addition of both locus of control and self-efficacy variables to the regression equation.

Understanding Student Perceptions of the Value of Ethics Training

In this paper, we attempt to replicate and expand a set of studies conducted by Tormo-Carbó, Seguí-Mas, and Oltra and published in Journal of Business Ethics and Procedia (with Klimkiewicz) in 2016 by conducting an experiment focused on directly addressing similar but refined research questions and contradictory results from their set of studies using improved methodology and question construction. Tormo Carbó and co-authors engaged business school students in a survey of their orientation towards ethics learning and discussion and generally found that those who had taken a business ethics class were more likely to express interest in and an appreciation for ethics training, this result was not robust in across locations more time when further studies were conducted using similar methodology in new settings and with different students. Using a student sample of 653 respondents enrolled in two introductory business and economics courses, we explore the influence that short ethics learning exercises have on students' interest in and appreciation for ethics training. We find that students' interest in ethics training does not increase after exposure to short training opportunities. We further find these students do not indicate an increased willingness to engage in that training or express an increase in the belief that ethics training should be required in degree programs.

Challenges and lessons: Design and implementation of a multi-site evaluation of team-based learning

The authors of this article describe the design and implementation of a multi-site randomized controlled trial of team-based learning (TBL) application exercises (AE) in introductory economics courses that use TBL. For each of the four study modules that are common across sites, a site is assigned to either the treatment or control version of the module. This design enables the use of a fixed effects model to estimate the effect of treatment on student learning and control for student characteristics. The methodology demonstrates how to extract the benefits of multi-site randomized controlled designs using a minimum of resources. The authors also discuss the challenges and the lessons learned in this study.

Learning in the time of Covid-19: Some preliminary findings

In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, universities closed to face-to-face learning, shifting entirely to online instruction midway through the spring 2020 semester. In this paper, we compare student performance in the Covid-19 affected semester to that of the previous three unaffected semesters. We consider both student grades and student performance on standardized post-tests in introductory macroeconomics, microeconomics, and statistics courses. We conclude that there were no significant differences in performance across the semesters. Despite concerns that low-income, first-generation, and minority students could suffer disproportionately, we identify no measurable effect for these population subgroups. Women are found to overperform in the Covid-affected semester when compared to previous terms. Women at our institution could be expected to earn 0.15 of a grade-point less in introductory economics courses than otherwise comparable men in pre-Covid semesters. In the Covid-affected semester, this difference disappeared, with women earning higher grades, on average, than men.