Simulations and Games in Economics Education

A simulation game, in economics education, is a game that mixes skill, chance and strategy to model some part of real economic life, such as a stock exchange, combining features of a game, like competition and rules, with realistic elements meant to teach economic ideas. These tools have become more important because lecture based teaching alone often fails to hold students interest or build the thinking skills economics requires, and because most students who take an introductory economics course do not go on to study the subject further. Both computer based and non computer simulations have grown a great deal in classrooms. Examples include simulations of monopolistic competition, where students run simulated firms and make pricing, advertising and production decisions, and macroeconomic simulations such as Harvard Business Publishings Econland, in which students make fiscal and monetary policy choices while steering a fictional economy through business cycles. These tools let students see economic principles play out rather than only reading about them in the abstract. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/