Personalized for Students
Economics for Life shows students how to use economic concepts to make smart choices in life as a consumer, as a businessperson, and as an informed citizen. We provide students with active guidance in plain language for sound economic decision-making.
To make this personal, we write in the first person, and use narratives and storytelling to get students interested in economics as a way of thinking that will help them make smarter choices in their lives. Concepts are not presented as theoretical ideas that must be learned in isolation, or as formulas for a set of problems. Instead, each chapter begins with a scenario, and the concepts emerge logically as the narrative unfolds.
We make repeated use of characters in concrete business scenarios to personalize the narratives and resonate with student experiences. Examples include individuals realizing gains from trade; small business owners choosing quantities and prices for maximum profits, estimating economic profits, and making labor hiring decisions. We model real-life consumer and business decisions students relate to.
Students with weaker numeracy skills are less intimidated by a table of numbers than by a graph. All key graphs are developed from a simple table of numbers, so students can see the correspondence.
For key analytical graphs, in a short video Professor Gordana Colby, an award-winning teacher, talks the student through the meaning of the figure, and trace shifts of curves and changes in outcomes.
Cognitive Science Antidotes to Skimming
At the end of each chapter section, there are three Refresh Questions. These formative assessments allow students to assess their understanding of the concepts and provide immediate, targeted feedback both for correct and incorrect answers. Formative Think About It assessments are sprinkled throughout each chapter, posing open-ended questions that push the student to stop and think about what they have just read, in the form of an application or extension.
These features act as “speed bumps,” encouraging students to slow down, recall, and reflect on the content. Retrieval not only provides students with information about their own learning (metacognition), it strengthens neural pathways, reinforces learning, and makes it more durable. Over time, these activities enable students to construct a longer-lasting mental framework for economic analysis.
Teaching the New Tools of Monetary Policy
After the Global Financial Crisis, central banks, including the Federal Reserve, fundamentally changed how monetary policy is implemented. Yet years later, many principles textbooks continued to emphasize obsolete tools and frameworks.
Recognizing this gap, Scott Wolla worked with an economist at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors to help modernize how monetary policy is taught, supporting instructors nationwide as they transitioned to the Fed’s ample reserves framework. That work has been featured in The Economist, The New York Times and NPR’s The Indicator.
The monetary policy chapter in Macroeconomics for Life reflects this modern framework, aligning classroom instruction with how policy is actually conducted today.
Pareto-Improving Outcomes
The literacy-targeted (LT) approach emphasizes mastering core economic concepts rather than exposing students to a wide range of theories and techniques they are unlikely to use. By concentrating on essential principles, LT instruction ensures that students can proficiently apply economic reasoning in real-world contexts. The potential benefits of an LT approach comes from some astounding numbers.
LT courses create a Pareto-improvement by:
- Attracting more students who would otherwise not take economics;
- Improving the success and retention of one-and-done students;
- Ensuring that students who do become economics majors are not disadvantaged.
The LT focus on mastering and applying core concepts also meets the requirement for economics majors. See the data!