The Global Economics Game is designed to be a teaching tool for economics and social studies courses at high schools, colleges, and universities.  It engages students by compelling them to employ basic principles in an interactive format.  The game gives macro economics a global perspective and is an effective way to integrate computer technology into the economics curriculum.

One of the main features of the game is that students really enjoy playing it.  Students discover that economics can be interesting and engaging.  Another attractive feature is that students can learn how to play it on their own by reading the instructions and/or going through the tutorials on the the game disk.  While they are playing the game, students (1) acquire a macro economics vocabulary, (2) become increasingly more familiar with macro economic principles and policies, (3) begin to master the aggregate demand and aggregate supply model, and (4) gain keen insights into the institutions and forces that shape the global economy.  The game visually helps students understand what the teacher is telling them in class lectures and what they are reading in their textbooks.  From a pedagogical perspective, the game is versatile in its applications. Each instructor can determine the timing and degree to which the game is integrated into the curriculum.

TIMING:  There are advantages to having students begin playing the game early in a semester.  For one, it generates enthusiasm and piques their interest in your course.  Secondly, students become familiar with terminology and concepts as they play the game.  This makes it much easier for them to understand the text and lectures over the duration of the course.  [Another good time to introduce the game to students is just before, during, or just after the topic of Aggregate Demand and Aggregate Supply.  If students are already familiar with GDP, inflation, unemployment, and externalities then they are ready to think about economic policies to balance conflicting goals.  At this point the game is reinforcing much of what they have already learned and preparing them for the material ahead regarding discretionary fiscal and monetary policies].

APPLICATIONS: The extent to which each instructor incorporates the game into his/her course will vary from teacher to teacher.  In this regard, the teacher has a great deal of discretion.  Some instructors will prefer to keep it simple and apply the game minimally by having the students do nothing more than play the game over the course of the semester.  Others will use the game more extensively as a supplementary teaching device to enhance the students' study, research, and computer skills.  Here are some recommended applications of the game within the context of a one semester or one quarter course:

Recommendation 1  Just Playing the Game:  Students learn a great deal about macro economics and the global economy just by playing the game.  The game is fun and challenging.  It is easy to learn how to play, but winning consistently requires practice and concentration.  If  a teacher does nothing more than require students to play the game several times during a semester course, then both teacher and students will derive benefits from this activity.  Students gain a familiarity with the terms and topics of a traditional macro economics course, and this helps the instructor convey difficult material to students in class lectures.  Instructors can easily verify that students are playing the game by requiring them to turn in print outs of the game results.  Each print out shows how many countries played, who were the economic advisers of each country, who won and what the scores were, and the date and time that the game was played.  The extent to which the instructor wants to award extra points to students for winning or playing against more countries is left entirely up to the instructor.

Recommendation 2  The Scholarship Contest: An instructor might consider student participation in our Scholarship Contest as an assignment in his/her course.  This is a fairly simple and highly beneficial application of the game.  The instructor requires each student to submit a preliminary contest entry to the instructor by a specific date.  The instructor evaluates the entries, comments on them, and returns them to the students.  Later, the students submit their final entries into the contest on their own according to the rules and guidelines described at this web site.  The contest involves students thinking of exogenous events that affect aggregate demand and/or aggregate supply, depicting a news magazine cover, and briefly describing the event.  It is a very creative assignment.  From the instructor's perspective, it is one of the most enjoyable student projects to evaluate.  Students can be very imaginative, and the assignment forces them to think analytically about the aggregate demand and aggregate supply curves.

Recommendation 3  The Series of Lessons:  Some instructors prefer a structured approach to integrating the game into their course.  For your convenience, we have prepared a series of lessons that go well with the game.  This makes it very easy for instructors to formally incorporate the game into their economics curriculum.  Each instructor can determine which lessons are the most appropriate for his/her course and style.  These are relatively high quality lessons that focus on the main topics of macro economics. Teachers and their students are welcome to download these lessons directly from this web site:

Lesson 1:  Focus on Opportunity Costs, Conflicting Goals, and Marginal Analysis
Lesson 2:  Focus on Measuring the Economy's Performance
Lesson 3:  Focus on Aggregate Demand and Aggregate Supply
Lesson 4:  Focus on Macroeconomic Policy
Lesson 5:  Focus on International Trade and Finance
Lesson 6:  Focus on Fiscal Policy
Lesson 7:  Focus on Monetary Policy
Lesson 8:  Focus on Market Failure and Externalities
Lesson 9:  Focus on Economic Analysis and Writing Reports
Lesson 10:  Focus on Research and Writing a Country Report
Lesson 11:  Focus on Comparative Advantage and Free Trade Areas (FTAs)
Lesson 12:  Focus on Game Theory and International Policy Coordination

Recommendation 4  Writing Assignments:  Some instructors prefer to require writing assignments and more in-depth analysis than the above exercises entail.  In this regard, We have prepared a list of Suggested Essay Questions that go well with the game.  They progress from short-answer questions to those requiring more extensive research and analysis.  Many of these questions are thought provoking, and some require extensive historical research.

Recommendation 5  Reading Assignments:  Our web site also features interesting and informative articles on recent global events that you may wish to recommend or require of your students.  These articles are short and designed to encourage your students to begin thinking about global economics.  Be sure to visit our World Economics News pages while you are here and see which articles would be the most interesting and applicable to your course.

Recommendation 6  Computer Lab Activity:  Ideally, the game is presented to a class of students in a computer lab setting. The instructor might demonstrate how the game is played at the beginning of a session.  This normally takes about 15 to 30 minutes.  Once students know how to play, they can begin to play against each other and/or computer managed countries.  Groups of 2, 3, or 4 students per station works best.  Some students can complete the game within one hour the first time they play.  After students become familiar with the game, it normally takes about 20 - 30 minutes to play a standard game to 100 points.  As they are playing, the instructor can be available to answer questions.  Questions generally pertain to how to play, terminology, and the cause-effect relationships between economic variables.  Working with a group of students who are playing The Global Economics Game in a computer lab setting can be one of the most rewarding activities that an instructor can experience.

Recommendation 7  Class Room Presentation:  Project the game onto a screen in a class room.  Divide the class into groups.  Each group is a country and designates someone to be the president and congress responsible for fiscal policy, another to be the trade representative, and another to be the central bank director in charge of monetary policy.  The instructor describes and comments on the events as they unfold.  Every game is different.  The students enjoy picking their countries and participating in this international competition in the class room.  Generally, this approach works best for relatively small classes.

Recommendation 8  Class Contest:  One of the most interesting methods of incorporating the game into a course is to have a class contest.  Establish the contest rules, time period, and prizes to be awarded at the outset.  Let the students participate in determining how the contest is to be conducted.  Students can play against each other or against computer-managed and laissez faire countries.  This could well be one of the most memorable events that students will have in their educational experience.

ON-LINE COURSES:  The game is an ideal supplement for distance learning courses.  Those students already have their own computers and can purchase a copy of the game directly from this web site.  Instructors can assign the lessons we have prepared and/or the recommended study questions and writing assignments that go with the game.  Students can download those lesson and questions from this web site and e-mail their work with attached files to the instructor.  The game is designed to go with virtually all of the leading principles texts.

SITE LICENSES:  The annual site license is an authorization to allow students to access the game at  your school computers.  It also permits demonstration and applications of the game in the class room.  It includes one compact disk, which can be used to copy the game into the school's computer network(s).  Additional disks must be purchased separately.  The site license includes an "Instructor's Guide" and the "Lessons" described above.  The site license is an excellent option for the larger institutions with many students, faculty, and departments.  It gives each instructor and department the flexibility to determine the degree to which they wish to use the game as a supplement to their course(s). The site license is especially useful for new adjunct instructors who are in the process of developing their courses.  More importantly, it provides all students at the institution access to the game.  The price of a one year site license is only $250.  To acquire an annual site license, simply complete our order form  (or contact us to arrange a site license for a pending purchase order).

BOOKSTORE ORDERS:  Many students prefer to purchase their own CD's for personal use at home. They can place their own order directly from our web site, and/or the college bookstore can place an order through our order form.  If you wish to have the CD packaged with the assigned text, please have your publisher contact us via e-mail.

QUESTIONS AND INQUIRIES:  Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions regarding the game and the best way to integrate it into your economics curriculum.   Submit inquiries via e-mail:  Send E-mail to: econgame.  You may also contact us by mail at the following address: Economics Education Products, 6421 Timber Springs Ct, Santa Rosa, CA 95409.

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