Research on Personal Finance, Economics Instruction, and Curriculum
Paper Session
Friday, Jan. 6, 2023 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM (CST)
- Chair: Diego Mendez-Carbajo, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
Implementing Topic-Driven Courses in Principles of Economics
Abstract
Deciding what economic concepts to cover can be hard, especially in introductory and principlescourses where the entire field is fair game. Finding relevant and engaging examples to highlight
them only increases the challenge. Perhaps this is because we are thinking about it the wrong
way and should, instead, be identifying important real-world issues then determining what
economic concepts can be used to better understand them. This demonstrates to students how
we can benefit from viewing the world through the economic lens while also addressing the
pressing and important issues around us.
In this paper, we describe the topic-driven course design and show how it can be used to
ensure survey courses cover relevant and practical material and, importantly, place the reason
for learning them at the center of student awareness. We compare the benefits and costs of a
topic-driven class for both students and teachers compared to traditional teaching methods
using a Principles of Microeconomics course as a case study. Additionally, we show how Google
Slides can be used to effectively to organize the class, building an outline along the way that
serves as a study-guide at the end of the semester. The software also can help foster
collaboration between teachers to reduce teaching costs to promote the creation and use of
open educational resources and strengthen our teaching community.
The Effect of Financial Education on Risky Financial Decisions: Experimental Evidence
Abstract
Many financial decisions involve risk or uncertainty. With financial products getting more and more complicated, it becomes increasingly hard for people to fully grasp the consequences of the risky financial decisions that they take. Research has shown that the lack of financial literacy is more pronounced within young adults (Lusardi, Mitchell and Vilsa, 2010). As a result, young adults are exposed to a variety of financial risks. In this paper, we study the effect of financial education on four different financial decisions that involve risk. To do that, we ran as part of an educational intervention an incentivized experiment that consisted of (i) a risky investment task, (ii) an insurance task, (iii) a mortgage plan task, and (iv) a portfolio task. We found limited support for the effect of financial education on these financial decisions. More precisely, participants in the treatment group spent less on insurance than those in the control group. Moreover, we observed that financial education has no significant effect on risk taking in the other tasks. We also report that women as compared to men made less risky choices in the insurance, mortgage and portfolio tasks.A Pilot Course for Improving Financial Literacy in College Students
Abstract
A college-level course content designed to improve financial literacy in college students was piloted in an institution of higher education in the Midwest. Course materials were designed to teach students with skills and knowledge tested in typical financial literacy questionnaires. Using the structure of a First Year Experience course, we delivered four modules on economic first principles to a small group of freshmen students in a large, public, and primarily undergraduate institution. The course modules included concepts in opportunity cost, time value of money, rational decisions at the margin, and risk and diversification. We analyze the data from this pilot course to inform survey design and the structure of a future general education course in financial literacy.Does It Spark Joy? Reworking Macroeconomics in a Principles of Economics Course
Abstract
Macroeconomics has a tough job in Principles of Economics. Instructors must not only fit the microeconomics part, but a lot of definitional macro material that’s prerequisite for even the most basic macro model. Coming from microeconomics—where students do a lot with supply and demand—this is a bad change of pace. Moreover, instructors usually prolong the microeconomics section more than needed, so the macroeconomics part ends up rushed and students believe that the end-all of the discipline is, at best, a collection of boring concepts that don’t go anywhere. Can we do something to correct this disservice to the discipline? I say yes. In this paper, I discuss solutions from the point of view of a macroeconomist in a (mostly) applied-micro department.Discussant(s)
Mario Solis-Garcia
,
Macalester College
Tin-Chun Lin
,
Indiana University-Northwest
Ishuan Li Simonson
,
Minnesota State University-Mankato
Panu Kalmi
,
University of Vaasa
Kyle Montanio
,
University of Colorado-Denver
JEL Classifications
- A2 - Economic Education and Teaching of Economics
- A1 - General Economics