Undergraduate Teaching Tools for Computable General Equilibrium Models

经济学（82）本项目为经济学本科高年级学生开发基于技术的学习材料。该项目将向学生介绍在过去25年中在经济发展、公共财政、贸易政策和其他主题的应用经济分析中得到广泛应用的一类经济模型。项目目标是加强和整合学生的经济理论知识，并提供机会，通过使用可计算的一般均衡（CGE）模型将其应用于现实世界的经济问题。CGE模型是一种适用于整个经济的分析工具，它提供了一个理论上一致的框架，用于模拟受一国收入和支出、储蓄和投资、资本和经常账户等宏观经济均衡制约的消费者和生产者的微观经济行为。CGE模型已成为经济学专业，尤其是政府部门广泛使用的政策分析工具。例如，政府首次使用这些模型之一是对1993年颁布的北美自由贸易协定（North American Free Trade Agreement）的成本和收益提供见解。最近，直观的通用电气模型建模软件的出现，以及模型数据库的日益普及，为在本科课堂上使用模型作为学习工具创造了机会。这些进步使学生能够相对较快地学习CGE建模的机制，使他们能够专注于他们正在学习的经济体的结构和行为。在这个项目中，正在编制8个相互关联的模块，侧重于一般商业模式的不同方面，包括生产、消费、国际贸易和金融、公共财政理论以及国民收入和产品核算数据。每个模块都希望通过提供主题理论和关键概念的背景和复习材料来加强学生先前的经济学知识。正在开发的模块包括实践作业，旨在将CGE模型开发为经济学实验室，学生可以在其中可视化并学习控制理论推导的微观经济行为，创建相关场景，如税收变化或生产率增长，做出预测，并学习解释结果。多部门、开放经济模式的复杂性挑战了学生在识别与实验相关的结果时的辨别能力。对结果的解释要求学生理解驱动生产者和消费者行为的基本原则。最后，学生学会运用一般均衡的观点来充分解释他们的结果。在这个过程中，学生将学习整合不同领域的经济理论知识，并在现实环境中认识经济行为。形成性评估和课程修订是由学生在数据分析、情景开发和结果解释等作业上的表现驱动的；他们在主要研究论文和报告中的表现；以及他们对学习材料有效性的主观评价。USNA教员正在对课程材料进行beta测试，作为评估的另一个来源。回顾学生的表现和调查反馈有助于形成性评估和对本项目开发的学习材料有效性的总结性评估。

Economics (82)This project is developing technology-based learning materials for advanced undergraduate economics students. The project will introduce students to a class of economic model that over the past 25 years has gained widespread use in applied economic analysis of economic development, public finance, trade policy, and other topics. Project goals are to strengthen and integrate student knowledge of economic theory, and provide opportunities to apply it to real-world economic problems through the use of computable general equilibrium (CGE) models. CGE models are applied, economy-wide analytical tools that provide a theoretically consistent framework for simulating the microeconomic behavior of consumers and producers constrained by the macroeconomic equilibrium of a country's income and expenditure, savings and investment, and capital and current accounts. CGE models have become a widely used tool for policy analysis in the economics profession, and particularly in government. For example, one of the first government uses of these models was to provide insights on the costs and benefits of the North American Free Trade Agreement enacted in 1993. The recent availability of intuitive modeling software for CGE models and the growing accessibility of model databases have created an opportunity to use the models as a learning tool in the undergraduate classroom. These advances allow students to learn the mechanics of CGE modeling relatively quickly, freeing them to focus on the structure and behavior of the economies that they are studying. In this project, eight interrelated modules are being developed that focus on different aspects of a CGE model, including the theory of production, consumption, international trade and finance, and public finance, and the data of national income and product accounts. Each module is expected to reinforce students' prior economics knowledge by providing background and review material on the topic's theory and key concepts. Modules are being developed to include hands-on assignments designed to develop the CGE model as an economics laboratory in which students can visualize and learn to control theoretically-derived microeconomic behavior, create relevant scenarios such as tax changes or productivity growth, make predictions, and learn to interpret results. The complexity of a multi-sector, open economy model challenges students to discriminate in identifying results that are relevant to the experiment. Interpretation of results requires students to understand the underlying principles driving producer and consumer behavior. Eventually, students learn to employ a general equilibrium perspective to fully explain their results. In this process, students learn to integrate their knowledge of different areas of economic theory and to recognize economic behavior in a realistic setting. Formative assessment and curriculum revisions are being driven by student performance on assignments related to data analysis, scenario development, and interpretation of results; their performance on a major research paper and presentation; and their subjective assessments of the effectiveness of the learning materials. USNA faculty members are beta-testing the course materials as another source of assessment. and reviewin g students' performance and survey responses contributes to formative assessment and to a summative assessment of the effectiveness of the learning materials developed in this project.