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This page
provides
links to three
distinct sets of material. The first is to courses.
We have integrated Excel into a
Principles
of Economics course
(microeconomic emphasis) and an International Economics course. The
second set of references is to published papers
that relate predominantly
to the materials developed for these courses. Finally, a set of work in progress is
available for use in
developing materials for (mostly microeconomics) courses.
We
have used Excel
workbooks and ancillary material in Principles of Economics II
(microeconomics) and in International Economics. In each case, the
approach is to write a Study Guide for each chapter. The Study Guide
provides a set of instructions, directing the user to open a specific
workbook and to conduct and report the results of specific exercises.
We often use the workbooks in class to illustrate the relevant
principles.
-
Principles
of Economics. The material in this course is
primarily
microeconomic. The text for the course is Gwartney, Stroup, Sobel, and
Macpherson, Economics, 10th ed. The workbooks
correspond to
chapters in that text, with each worksheet corresponding to a graph.
Using Excel allows students to introduce changes and examine the
effects of these changes.
Most of the microeconomic material in Mankiw
is also
available. This material was developed for the 1st
editon.
- International
Economics (ECO 440). This
page provides
access to Excel-based
counterparts to all graphs in selected chapters of Krugman and
Obstfeld, International Economics: Theory and Policy
(5th
ed.).
Most of
these papers
relate to material developed for use in the two courses above. An
exception is the paper on the CES utility function.
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"The
Heckscher-Ohlin Model with
Variable Input Coefficients in Spreadsheets," Computers
in Higher Education Economics Review, 13
(1999).
Develops the
Heckscher-Ohlin model. The article is based on a workbook that
follows
the development of Krugman
and Obstfeld, International
Economics.
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"Using
Microsoft
Excel to
Illustrate Gains from Trade," Business
Quest
(2000). The paper and the workbook
develop the simple Ricardian model of trade, showing how specialization
according to comparative advantage increases total product. A slightly
different development that follows Krugman and Obstfeld, International
Economics is
here. |
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| "Using
Microsoft Excel in
Principles of Economics," Computers
in Higher Education Economics Review, 14
(2001). The
paper shows
how Excel is being used in principles of economics. Most of the graphs
used in the microeconomics chapters of texts by Gwartney, Stroup,
Sobel, and Macpherson; and by Mankiw are used in our principles course.
See Courses
above. |
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"Cost
Curves and How
They Relate," Journal
of
Economic Education, 33
(2002), 89. The
JEE publishes an abstract of
this article. The article, in HTML format, is here. The
article
contains links
to the workbooks used to draw the various long-run and short-run cost
curves. |
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"Comparing
Trade
Instruments Using Spreadsheets," Social
Science
Computer Review, 20
(2002), Summer:
197 - 193. A Microsoft Word
version of the paper is here.
The workbook on which the article is based is here. |
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| "Lessons
from the
Specific Factors Model of International Trade." Journal
of
Economic Education (2003):
Vol. 34,
No. 2. This paper is based on the
development in Krugman and Obstfeld, International
Economics.
The Microsoft Word
version of the
document is here,
along with the workbook
upon which it is based. A PDF version is available at the JEE website. |
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“Illustrating
Consumer Theory with the CES Utility Function.” Journal
of
Economic Education (2004):
Vol 35, No.
3. The Microsoft Word
version of the document is here, along
with the workbook upon
which the
paper is based. |
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“Analyzing
Subsidies
in Microsoft Excel.”
Journal
of
Economic Education (2005):
Vol. 36,
No. 2.
The
document is here.
The document
contains links to two workbooks that illustrate the relevant
principles. The workbooks treat a fixed-quantity and a
variable-quantity subsidy.
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| | “The
Solow Growth Model: An Excel-Based
Primer,” with
William D. Sockwell. Journal
of
Economic Education
(2007), Vol. 38. The document is here.
The document contains links to a workbook and to a set of exercises. | | |
This
section
contains references to a
number of workbooks on which we are working. In some cases, text
accompanies the workbook. In others, the workbooks stand alone. The
state of development varies among the workbooks. Taken a a whole, this
material covers much of the material covered by an undergraduate course
in microeconomics.
Intermediate
Microeconomics
Topics
The
material in this section derives from a set of chapters that we
sketched in hopes of writing a microeconomics text with all graphs
generated by Excel.
We
underestimated the task, but did develop quite a bit of material that
can be useful in illustrating many of the models used in microeconomics.
The
first
set of material provides an overview of competitive (price-taker)
markets. The material is quite similar in many respects to that in the
relevant sections of Principles II.
Market
Basics: Demand, Supply, Equilibrium, and Applications.
This
set of material contains two Word
documents. Each document is a chapter related to a general overview of
markets. Chapter
2: Demand, Supply,
and Elasticity relies on
the four
workbooks Demand_intro.xls, Supply_intro.xls, Market_intro.xls,
and elasticity.xls.
The second
of these
two chapters, Chapter
3: Competitive Markets and Applications addresses
the
efficiency of competitive (price-taker) markets, the effects of taxes,
and international trade. The analysis requires the use of the three
workbooks market
efficiency.xls, Excise_Taxes.xls,
and International_Trade.xls.
Consumer
Theory. This set
of material explores a model of the consumer’s response to
changes in
money income
and prices. It also shows how consumer
surplus, introduced in the preceding chapter, is derived from
the
utility
function. It is based on a Cobb-Douglas utility function. The Journal
of Economic Education article
based on the
CES utility function may be used along with this material. The material
consists of two parts, a Word document
and an
Excel worbook.
Other
"Developing
Analytical
Graphs in Microsoft Excel." This set of material provides insights into
developing graphs that are useful for the development of economic
models within Excel.
The paper
contains a link to the workbook. This paper is in draft form.
Dr.
Wilson
Mixon
Dana
Professor of Economics Emeritus
Berry
College
Mt.
Berry, Georgia 30149
Email: wmixon@berry.edu
| Dr.
Soumaya M. Tohamy
Economist, United States
Consumer
Product
Safety Commission
4330 East West Highway
Bethesda, Maryland 20814
Email:
stohamy@cpsc.gov
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