Teaching Macroeconomics with Microsoft Excel (R)

Description

Humberto Barreto gives professors a simple way to teach fundamental concepts for any undergraduate macroeconomics course using Microsoft Excel (R) with Excel workbooks and add-ins and videos freely available on his university website. The Excel files are designed to be used by students with any textbook, and have been used many times by the author in his own teaching. Each Excel workbook contains links to short screencasts, around five to ten minutes, that show the cursor and typing as the file is manipulated with narration that walks the student through the steps needed to complete a task. The book shows professors a simple way to present macroeconomic models and incorporate data into their courses.

Dr Humberto Barreto earned his PhD from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in 1985 with a specialization in the history of economic thought. In his teaching and writing, Barreto applies a pedagogical philosophy that eschews formalism and abstraction in favor of concrete problems and hands-on learning. He shows students how economists think, manipulate models, and use data. Barreto has previously been a Fulbright Scholar in the Dominican Republic, has won several teaching awards, and has given workshops all over the world on how to improve the teaching of economics and econometrics.

'For professors, this text is a wonderful complement to an intermediate macro course. Using Excel in class really brings the material to life, and using Excel in assignments helps to build [students'] economic intuition while giving them a marketable skill. And the material can be used piecemeal - you can pick and choose which bits to put in your course. All macro teachers should think seriously about bringing this approach into the classroom.' Sean Brocklebank, University of Edinburgh 'The pedagogically sound approach of this unique text, intended for teachers, encourages the use of modern hybrid pedagogies and hands-on experience for students. While seamlessly building skills, the book successfully addresses the acute need to make abstract concepts concrete through simulation. Flexibility of modular content and ample specific suggestions allow for easy tailoring to the needs of individual classes. After trying this creative approach, no one will ever teach macroeconomics in the same manner again.' Peter Mikek, Wabash College 'Professor Barreto has taken a truly innovative approach to teaching intermediate macroeconomics to undergraduate students. His use of Microsoft Excel to recast and display concepts from intermediate macroeconomics allows students to enhance their understanding of abstract concepts. The inclusion of add-ins and screencasts are designed to assist the student in their learning endeavors. Having read the textbook and undertaken many of the exercises contained in the workbook, I particularly like the way that a number of data add-ins, such as the FRED add-in, have been integrated into the teaching material.' George B. Tawadros, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology 'Can you imagine how excited a student would be when she sits in front of a computer and creates her 'own' economy within seconds? This book can tremendously help an instructor flip a classroom and make learning fun and more student-centered. It offers students more exposure to advanced functions of Microsoft Excel and online economic databases, such as FRED, on the basis of appropriate macroeconomic theories. Such exposure strengthens students' data-crunching skills which help them stand out on the job market and/or in economics research.' Guangjun Qu, Birmingham-Southern College