M. Kathleen Thomas

Simpsonomics: Teaching Economics Using Episodes of The Simpsons

Undergraduate students are often interested in applications of economic principles. Although popular television shows and movies are not real-world examples, drawing from these sources can motivate disinterested students and provide a pedagogical tool that enhances instruction. In this article, the authors discuss several basic introductory economic principles that are illustrated by the television show The Simpsons. Topics include economic reasoning, opportunity cost, incentives, comparative advantage, declining marginal benefit, elasticity, externalities, free-riding, and game theory. The authors provide discussion questions and student worksheets that instructors can use in their own classes.

Teaching Macroeconomic Principles Using Animated Cartoons

Multimedia materials are underused and powerful tools for teaching economics. We present examples from cartoons that can be used to illustrate important principles in an introductory macroeconomics class. Clips from Beavis and Butthead, Duck Tales, Futurama, and The Simpsons are used to explain the velocity of money, inflation and long-run monetary policy, interest, future and present value, household production and mismeasurement of GDP, and structural unemployment.

Teacher Training and Market Attitudes in Transitioning Economies

One of the ancillary goals of economic education programs in transitioning economies is to foster positive attitudes toward market economies. Using a simultaneous equations model to account for the interaction between attitudes and economics knowledge, this research examines the factors that contribute to the pro-market attitudes of teachers participating in economics training programs sponsored by the National Council on Economic Education in Russia, Central Asia and Central and Eastern Europe. Empirical results indicate that training increases the probability participants will possess positive attitudes toward market economies, but that possessing positive attitudes toward free-markets does not necessarily imply greater economics knowledge.

Giving to poverty relief charities: the impact of beliefs and misperceptions toward income redistribution in a real donation experiment

Many Americans hold erroneous beliefs regarding the level of inequality in the United States and the efforts by the federal government to alleviate poverty. In general, they overestimate the extent of poverty relief undertaken by government. Given that poverty relief programs are a public good and likely underprovided, overestimation of the level of income redistribution is likely to exacerbate this under-provision by reducing giving to private charities. This paper considers if this misperception affects giving to poverty-relief charities. We report a real-donation experiment investigating links between contributions to poverty-relief charities and perceptions of federal transfers to low income households. We also ask participants to self-identify political affiliation, religiosity, race, and gender. We find that donations to our poverty relief charities are inversely related to the perceived transfers made to the poorest quintile. Donations are approximately

The Link between Advanced Placement Experience and Early College Success

0.20 less for each

Testing the Economic Literacy of K-12 Teachers: A State-Wide Baseline Analysis.

1000 of perceived transfers. Interestingly, we find little correlation between giving and political beliefs.