Abstract for: The Useful Macro Project

At previous conferences, participants got progress reports on the challenges of developing a system dynamics-based macroeconomics model as the foundation of a new textbook for students having no experience with either SD or macroeconomics. The book was published last year, and Useful Macroeconomics has now been used by more than 100 students. The first section of this paper briefly reviews our motivation for using SD as a tool for learning macroeconomics. Next, we clarify the purpose of MacroLab, the textbook’s featured model. The third section illustrates three of the many ways the model has been used as an instructional tool: an interactive monetary policy game, a ‘what if ...’ simulation of a large increase in tariffs; and comparative modeling of behavioral changes in a sub-model as it becomes gradually more embedded in the feedback structure of the surrounding full model. We conclude with quick previews of the upcoming 2nd edition of the textbook and new work on a two-volume set of supplemental materials: a Student Learning Activities Guidebook and an Instructor’s Resource Manual.