This program contains three streamlined experiments discussed in the paper “Discovering Economics in the Classroom with Experimental Economics and the Scottish Enlightenment” by Taylor Jaworski, Vernon
Smith and Bart Wilson, which is published in the International Review of Economics Education. This paper describes a curriculum for teaching economics that draws connections to the Scottish Enlightenment through the use of economic experiments. The key features of the curriculum are the low technology requirements, complete instructions for running the experiment and debriefing the results, and a guide for teacher-led round-table discussions motivated by the Scottish philosophers. The main goals are to present economic principles to young students in a way that is both exciting and accessible, while emphasizing the discovery process underlying the wealth of nations since the Industrial Revolution (Smith 1776). The first program illustrates the gains from specialization and exchange in a production and consumption experiment (Crockett, Smith, and Wilson 2009). Second, as Smith (1982) discusses, the classic oral double-auction demonstrates how a price mechanism spontaneously orders the buying and selling decisions of individuals with dispersed and private knowledge of their personal circumstances (for the first published double-auction experiment, see Smith 1962). Finally, the extensive form game experiment illustrates the prevalence and success of trust and reciprocity in modern contexts that are otherwise apparently dominated by impersonal self-interested exchange in markets (McCabe, Rigdon, and Smith 2003).
- Crockett, Sean, Vernon L. Smith, and Bart J. Wilson. 2009. “Exchange and Specialisation as a Discovery Process.” Economic Journal, 119(539): 1161-1188.
- McCabe, Kevin A., Mary L. Rigdon, and Vernon L. Smith. 2003. “Positive Reciprocity and Intentions in Trust Games.” Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 52(2): 267-275.
- Smith, Adam. 1776 [1981]. The Wealth of Nations. Liberty Fund: Indianapolis, IN.
- Smith, Vernon L. 1962. “Experimental Study of Competitive Market Behavior.” Journal of Political Economy, 70(2): 111-137.
- Smith, Vernon L. 1982. “Markets as Economizers of Information: Experimental Examination of the ‘Hayek Hypothesis’.” Economic Inquiry, 20(2): 165-179.
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