G. Dirk Mateer

Movie Scenes for Economics

The “Movie Scenes for Economics” Web site catalogs more than 70 movie scenes of interest to economics teachers. Some of the scenes have been mentioned in the existing literature (Dixit 2006; Sexton 2006; Mateer 2005), but many of the scenes are new or previously undiscovered. The purpose of the Web site is to create a single resource that instructors can use to identify film elements for their courses. The database provides each movie title, the year of release, a link to the full movie description at the Internet Movie Database (IMDB), a short scene synopsis, how the scene relates to economics, the length of the scene, and the exact DVD locations where the scene can be found. The primary advantages of presenting this information on the Web are the abilities to link to the IMDB, provide timely updates to the catalog of film scenes as new films are released, and solicit suggested scenes from visitors to the Web site.

From Abba to Zeppelin, Led: Using Music to Teach Economics

The From ABBA to Zeppelin Weblog offers a variety of songs and lyrics that economics instructors might find useful. Song selections range from country to rock to rap. Each post includes a selection from the song (and a link to the full lyrics) and a brief assignment for students. JEL codes are provided so that instructors may assign certain songs based on the course content. This Weblog was created to facilitate the use of music in the economics classroom. In the interests of moving away from “chalk and talk,” we decided to join several recent educators who have developed approaches to teaching economics concepts that involve using popular music to engage their classes (Harter 2003; Kane 1999; Tinari and Khandke 2000). Our approach is detailed in the paper “From ABBA to Zeppelin: Using Popular Music to Teach Economics,” which is available on the Website. In our opinion, this Weblog complements all such attempts to use music in the classroom by providing additional examples that can be integrated into the curriculum.

TV for Economics

URL: http://www.tvforecon.blogspot.com/ The TV for Economics Web site catalogs more than 80 television scenes of interest to economic educators. Although there is a substantial literature on the us...

Your Place in Space: Classroom Experiment on Spatial Location Theory

Abstract The authors detail an urban economics experiment that is easily run in the classroom. The experiment has a flexible design that allows the instructor to explore how congestion, zoning, public transportation, and taxation levels determine the bid–rent function. Heterogeneous agents in the experiment compete for land use using a simple auction mechanism. Using the data that is collected, a bid–rent function is derived, and the experimental treatment is altered over the course of three sessions to uncover core concepts in urban economics. Moreover, this provides a tangible experience that can be used to help undergraduates relate to urban issues such as the steep rent gradient found around many larger colleges and universities.

The thrill of victory, the agony of defeat*

This paper presents experimental evidence from a rent-seeking exercise where the highest bidder wins the rent, but all bidders, including the winner, lose their wagers. This exercise closely resembles the rent-seeking dilemma facing agents in many settings. There are two main conclusions from the results. First, there is a tendency towards overdissipation of the rent. Second, some individuals are willing to pay more for a rent than its face-value would warrant. We attribute this phenomenon to a “thrill of victory” effect.