Gail Hoyt

The Professional Development of Graduate Students for Teaching Activities: The Students’ Perspective

This article provides insight into the skill-development activities of graduate students at U.S. institutions providing graduate education in economics. The authors document the extent of student participation in and preparation for teaching-related activities while in graduate school, finding that more than 50 percent of students are involved in teaching-related activities such as grading, leading recitation sections, and teaching their own sections and that most were satisfied with their preparation. Important differences in participation in these activities are highlighted by assistantship assignments, institution rank, and gender. Findings suggest that programs could do more to prepare students for participation in teaching specific professional activities after graduation.

A Primer for New Teachers of Economics

In many economics programs, both graduate students and new assistant professors are thrown into the classroom without guidance, with the potential for negative ramifications that can last throughout their careers as teachers. This article is a primer in which we offer unique insights into useful methods and practices for new teachers in the economics profession. We discuss organizational and logistical issues that new teachers must consider and then offer our advice on specific pedagogical tools and techniques. Following the growing literature on the benefits of student-centered and interactive instruction, we focus on ways instructors can move away from the traditional “chalk and talk” approach. We organize and present these alternative pedagogies in terms of their level of complexity and time required. We conclude with suggestions and resources for the continued growth and development of new teachers in economics.

The Paper River: A Demonstration of Externalities and Coase's Theorem.

It is necessary to know whether the dama ging business is lia ble or not for damage caused since without the esta blishment of this initial delimitation of rights there can be no market transactions to transfer and recombine them. But the ultimate result (which maximises the value of production) is independent of the le gal position if the pricing system is assumed to work without cost. R. H. Coase The Paper River is a cl a s s room simu l ation designed to examine a negat ive ex t e rnality ge n e rated by a pro d u c t ive process that elicits a Coasian solution. Pre v i o u s ex p e riments designed by Hazlett (1995), N u gent (1993, 1 9 9 7 ) , and Berg s t rom and Miller (1997, 179‐99) focus on how pollution emission rights can be effi c i e n t l y a l l o c ated by the market through pro p e rty rights. Although these ex p e riments touch on pro p e rty rights in demonstrating how emission rights are a more efficient means of reducing pollution than gove rnment imposed limits, t h ey do not add ress Coase’s Th e o rem dire c t ly. Classroom ex p e riments that demonstrate Coase’s T h e o re m i n clude those by Delemeester and Neral (1995, 115‐19) and Stodder (1996). In these activ i t i e s , students imagine they are either the cr e ator or recipient of a h y p othetical ex t e rn a l i t y. Although this ap p ro a ch is useful for conveying Coase’s T h e ore m , it does not give students the opportunity to g e n e rate and ex p e rience the ex t e rnality dire c t ly. In the Paper Rive r, students cre ate and ex p e rience an ex t e rnality fi rs t hand and then concep t u a l i ze a correction pro c e d u re that is consistent with Coase’s Th e o rem. The unique nat u re of this simu l ation allows students to be invo l ve d d i re c t l y in the ex t e rn a l i t y . In add i t i o n , it simu l ates an actual env i ronmental pro bl e m , wh i ch will enable students to identify more easily other examples of e x t e rnalities that affect our society, s u ch as endange red species, d e s t ruction of the ra i nfo re s t s , and pre s e rvation of nat u ral hab i t at s .

Teacher training for PhD students and new faculty in economics

ABSTRACT Past studies suggest that a majority of economics graduate students engage in teaching-related activities during graduate school and many go on to academic positions afterwards. However, not all graduate students are formally prepared to teach while in graduate school nor are they fully prepared to teach in their first academic position. The authors characterize current teaching experience and training of graduate students from the point of view of directors of graduate studies and of newly minted academic economists. The authors also query department chairs and new faculty about teacher training, support available for new faculty, and the degree to which newly hired Ph.D. economists are prepared to teach. Findings indicate that while some training is available, there is room for enhancing teacher training in economics.

Great ideas for making economic principles relevant and engaging: A three-paper symposium from David Cutler, Dean Karlan, and Cecilia Rouse

The perpetual challenge facing economic educators is to find ways to make the principles of economics relevant and engaging for undergraduates. Students also look to their instructors to help them make sense of goings on in the world around them. At the 2017 meetings of the American Economic Association, the Committee on Economic Education sponsored a panel in which three distinguished economists shared ideas for making economic principles relevant based on concepts and issues important in their respective fields. The following three-paper symposium provides a written version of their advice for capturing the attention of our students and showing them the power to use the tools of economists to address interesting and worthwhile problems. These three pieces, prepared by David Cutler, Dean Karlan, and Cecilia Rouse, offer a blend of basic economic theory, timely policy applications, and compelling examples along with excellent “how-to” advice for practitioners. David Cutler is the Otto Eckstein Professor of Applied Economics at Harvard University with a joint appointment in the John F. Kennedy School of Government. Professor Cutler is well known for his work in health economics and public economics. In addition to countless articles and book chapters, he wrote the very influential book, Your Money or Your Life: Strong Medicine for America’s Health Care System. He has had an enormous impact on health care policy at the state and federal level, and serves on the Health Policy Commission for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Professor Cutler also served on the Council of Economic Advisors and the National Economic Council during the Clinton administration, and more recently served as the senior health care advisor for the Obama presidential campaign. Professor Cutler shares the PowerPoint slides he uses when teaching a segment on health care policy in the economics principles course at Harvard. In his symposium article, he explains the relevant health care theory and policy issues he discusses with students as he works his way through the presentation content. Dean Karlan is a professor of economics at Yale University. Professor Karlan is a leader in the field of development economics and well known for his work in behavioral economics and the use of field experiments. He is an outstanding scholar with a lengthy list of publications, and a social entrepreneur who is a key player in initiatives and organizations around the globe devoted to alleviating poverty. In addition to coauthoring his book with Jacob Appel, More than Good Intentions: How a New Economics is Helping to Solve Global Poverty, he is the founder and president of Innovations for Poverty Action, a nonprofit organization dedicated to discovering and promoting effective solutions to global poverty problems. He is cofounder of stickK.com, a Web site that uses lessons from behavioral economics to help people reach personal goals, such as weight loss and smoking cessation. With Jonathan Morduch, he has coauthored a popular economics principles text. In Professor Karlan’s symposium contribution, he offers three examples from the television show, Survivor, that instructors can use to make compelling points about some basics of game theory and behavior for principles students.

Models of undergraduate research in economics: Advice from eight exemplary programs

A productive research experience can be the highpoint of the undergraduate curriculum for an economics major, allowing the student to employ the tools economists use in richer and more complex ways. In our 2016 poll of economics departments at the top 30 liberal arts colleges and the top 30 national universities (based on U.S. News and World Report 2017 rankings), we find that almost all departments provide an undergraduate research experience in some form because their faculty share a belief that research is integral to the field of economics and vital to the development of a well-rounded economics major (Hoyt and McGoldrick 2017). Students have the opportunity to hypothesize, analyze, interpret, and create using the tools of economists while also developing general skills such as writing, presenting, managing time, andworking with others. There is consensus among the top programs queried: resources invested into a well-designed undergraduate research program can lead to human capital accumulation that is valued by graduate programs and employers alike. In our study of the top programs, we gathered information regarding what motivates programs to include a research component, how prevalent undergraduate research is and the forms it takes, what departments view as obstacles to undergraduate research, the creative ways that departments foster research in light of resource constraints, and the steps departments take to create a culture of research. While our departmental survey yieldedmany interestingmethods of promoting undergraduate research, we chose a select few to describe their experience and provide a more in-depth perspective. To that end, this symposium includes articles written by faculty at two leading liberal arts colleges, Macalester College and Wellesley College, as well as three top national universities including the University of Chicago, Dartmouth University, and Princeton University. Our choice of those programs to include in this symposium in no way suggests that the other programs could not have contributed similarly. Additionally, in May of 2015, economists from three institutions with outstanding undergraduate economics programs participated in a panel discussion at the American Economic Association’s Conference on Teaching and Research on Economic Education that focused on partnerships with other units on campus to facilitate undergraduate economic research and writing. The final article in this symposium is authored by economists and representatives from these other campus units at the University of California at Berkeley, Barnard College, and Carleton College. We also refer readers to a 2015 symposium in the Journal of Economic Education that was assembled to allow a response to Stock and Siegfried (2015), who documented the undergraduate origins of PhD economists. Four “top producing” programs contributed to that collection, and each piece includes a brief description of the role undergraduate research plays in the success of the undergraduate programs in these departments (University of California-Berkeley [Olney 2015]; Carleton College [Bourne and Grawe 2015]; Harvard University [Gajwani and Miron 2015]; and Swarthmore College [Jefferson and

In Memory of Michael Watts (November 3, 1950-December 5, 2014)

Michael Watts, Professor of Economics at Purdue University, died unexpectedly on December 5, 2014, at the age of 64 while on vacation in Antigua. His connection to the Journal of Economic Education is a long one. For 20 years, from 1988 through 2007, Mike served as the associate editor for JEE’s instruction section, which typically accounts for the largest number of articles published in a JEE issue. After 2007, he continued to serve on JEE’s editorial board. Mike was a remarkable academic and scholar who made significant and wide-ranging contributions to economic education beyond his valuable service to JEE. Mike was born on November 3, 1950, in Medicine Lodge, Kansas, where he lived until he was six. He spent the rest of his childhood and teen years growing up in Kenner, Louisiana. For his higher education, he attended Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, where he earned his BS (1972), MA (1976), and PhD (1978), all in economics. After graduating, he taught for three years at Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis. Mike was hired in 1981 by Purdue University. He spent the rest of his academic career on the economics faculty at Purdue

A Guide for Submissions to the Features and Information Section—A Wealth of Opportunities

The associate editor for the Features and Information (F&I) section of the Journal of Economic Education provides an overview of articles published in this section over the last 20 years with emphasis on pieces that serve as exceptional models for potential contributions. She also offers advice on topics and stylistic approach to authors considering a submission to F&I.