Bruce Rottman

This four page review is a hilarious fill in the blank and create a graph exercise designed to review supply and demand. It uses the story of Little Red Riding Hood (who is an aspiring economist), who of course loses her grandmother and meets a wolf, but also has to teach the town fathers the difference between demand and quantity demanded, explain to Acme Picnic Table Corp why their input costs are rising (woodchoppers are becoming security guards), and even includes the impact of Chinese lycra

This lesson is suitable for a written assignment or a discussion; I usually have students brainstorm in groups with my help, and then assign it as an essay. Students examine data and apply it to a simple formula (C = B/W) to show the cost of social security over time, and suggest politically viable reforms. That, of course, is dicey, but at least they understand the demographics of the problem and the essence of the political problem. Includes a rubric for grading.

This activity can be the basis of a discussion, a group activity, a writing assignment, or all three (which is how I use these assignments). In this activity, Ray Zhoor discovers a way to double the life expectency of razors at Slick, Corp. Will doing so decrease Slick's profits? Includes a quite complete rubric for grading that shows how difficult to carry out Planned Obsolescence really is.

Are "green" products efficient? This exercise clarifies the meaning of efficiency to economics students; using data from window manufacturers, it contrasts the economics of buying a "high efficiency" window, which saves energy but costs more, with a normal window, which is cheaper but uses more energy. Students work together to brainstorm the logic of efficiency and present value, crunch some numbers, calculate which window is more efficient, and then speculate how changing interest rates change

This activity can be used both as the basis for a written assignment and/or as a discussion. It starts with the economics of Lemons--bad cars. Might the entire used car market disappear? Students explore how that might occur, crunching a few numbers, but end up discovering ways in which markets limit the problem of asymmetrical information, and apply the problem and the lesson to other areas of life as well.

Hayek's "The Use of Knowledge in Society" is, in my opinion, one of the most important articles written in economics. Its description of the way in which prices allocate resources and convey information gives students a basic understanding of how markets work. But it's difficult to understand, even for college students. So I rewrote it. It's still challenging (about a senior level to college freshmen level) but much, much easier to understand. This paraphrase follows the original article paragra

This is an essay assignment for ancient history which uses the only surviving document from the end of the Old Kingdom of Egypt, sometimes called "The Admonitions of an Egyptian Sage," and has students discover what the priestly class values, based on his complaints about his world in circa 2200 BC. It starts with a hypothetical "diary" from the future, in which students learn to figure out values from people's complaints and hypothesize about the situation described in the diary. Includes a gra

I fudged on the title a bit, which is actually "Light rail, Heavy Eating: An Exercise in Rationality in Politics." It uses a restaurant example (and some simple number crunching) to get at concepts of "rational ignorance" to show why Americans can be against budget deficits (in general) and merrily vote for their free-spending representative at the same time, and asks students to brainstorm reforms. Can be used as an in class activity and/or the basis of an assignment. Includes a grading rubric

Four exercises exploring the uses of a simple formula for present value: one examines a furnace, another a "robo bagger," a third examines the value of a goose that lays a golden egg, and a fourth explores a stock that increases in value by a dollar a day.

War supposedly helped get the US out of depression, but destroying goods doesn't seem to help most people's economy; what gives? This scenario contrasts two macroeconomic alternatives in the middle of a recession: going to war and building public works. It asks students to consider the results of each, and to explore the effects of the various ways to fund deficit spending. A good introduction to "bad goods" and GDP and Bastiat's "broken window" fallacy, as well as an exploration of the value o

This assignment walks students through parallels in Animal Farm with events in the USSR as they read the book; it includes a discussion guide for a formal discussion; and it includes an essay assignment on the topic "What Went Wrong?"

This activity can be used as a group brainstorming/discussion and/or the basis for a paper. I do both. I use it after students read their chapter on income distribution and ask them to explain why the gap exists in American history, and why it's narrowing, using the theory of "constrained choices." Grading rubric included.

Richard Thaler argues that people often behave irrationally. This series of scenarios (along with a rubric that contains answers) challenges the idea that homo economicus is occasionally irrational. It starts with the cashew hiding host: if more choices are good, is it irrational to thank him for putting those delicious nuts away?

This exercise, suitable for a group discussion or an individual written assignment, examines an actual proposal that circulated on the net in 2008 suggesting that we all boycott Exxon-Mobil until gas prices drop to $2. It sets up a simple model and gives a rubric stating all the options--each one showing how collusion (buyer or seller) must fail.

This economics mystery sets up a simple model with five individuals in a small town; a poor person moves into the town and needs housing. It suggests three options for housing Frank, the newcomer. Students crunch the numbers and examine the proposals; great for a short paper or for an in-class discussion.