Economics and finance professors talk about how they use class time to teach real-world skills. Courtesy | Pexels.

When Robert Atra wanted to give his students real-world experience, he turned over half of his 401(k) to the investment club.

“They actually have well over $100,000 from just my 401(k) to manage,” said Atra, the chairman of economics, business, and accounting. “It’s a little more interesting if it’s someone’s money, as opposed to the college’s money, which in a sense becomes faceless.”

Other professors in the economics and businesses departments said they have developed similar experimental and interactive projects to make abstract concepts personal. They said economics, as an experimental science, is primarily concerned with the human person, but students may forget this personal aspect when facing complex theories.

The investment club, which already managed a portion of Hillsdale’s endowment, added the portion of Atra’s 401(k) to its portfolio in 2023. Atra, the club’s adviser, said he thought students would benefit from reporting to a client — himself — and experiencing the limitations of 401(k) investing.

“The idea is to put them in a more realistic situation when it comes to making investment decisions,” Atra said.

According to Atra, the part of his 401(k) managed by student investors did about the same as the portion managed by a mutual fund company.

“They’re right on par,” Atra said.

Atra said he applies the same experimental attitude to his in-classroom teaching, as well as many other economics and finance courses. In the classroom, Atra said he likes to engage students through projects.

“I frequently write the projects in terms of a memo from your boss,” Atra said.

Atra said memos give students a better idea of how to apply economics in the professional sphere, while emphasizing concision and problem-solving.

“We are sending a lot of people to financial advisers,” Atra said of Hillsdale economics graduates. “Students go do all kinds of things, banking and real estate and whatever. But financial advising, if I had to rank them, is probably number one. You have to change your class to reflect that orientation.”

Abel Winn, associate professor of economics, said he emphasizes the experimental nature of economics in his classes. In his principles of microeconomics and experimental economics courses in particular, Winn said he uses economics experiments to contextualize and drive lecture material.

“In my principles of microeconomics class, the first experiment we do is the double auction,” Winn said.

Winn said he divides students into buyers and sellers, telling them their score depends on the profit they can make trading in the market. The highest earners earn extra credit on the final exam. Sellers try to sell products for higher than the production cost, and buyers try to buy products for lower than the production cost.

“When one buyer and seller have reached an agreement on a price, that’s a contract,” Winn said.

Following the experiment, Winn creates a graph of the sellers’ and buyers’ values, creating real-life supply and demand curves. Students conduct different rounds of the experiment to mimic shortages and price controls.

“Going into the experiment, I know what the equilibrium prediction is,” Winn said. “They have no idea what the equilibrium price is. They just trade.”

Winn conducts a different demonstration to help his students understand subjective valuation and gains through trade. He distributes small items to the class and has them trade them according to their preferences.

“When we trade with each other, both of us end up more satisfied with what we have at the end of the trade than what we had beforehand,” Winn said, picking up his smartphone. “This smartphone does not have a value that is intrinsic to the object. Every person has their own preference for it and what they’d be willing to give up to get it.”

Winn argued that economics is an experimental science, and that seeing it as such reveals its beauty.

“I can build small worlds in the lab and test out what’s happening. That’s a really exciting thing,” Winn said. “It sparked some wonder for me. I’m hoping that it does that for my students in both of those classes.”

Winn also said having the memory of experiments gives economists better predictive abilities and more intellectual honesty.

“Practicing economics as an experimental science, at least for me, makes you a lot more humble,” Winn said. “I don’t have as much knowledge about my fellow man as I thought. I know a lot about myself, but I don’t know that much about these other people.”

Christopher Martin, associate professor of economics,  said he has evolved his teaching techniques to meet the diligence and intellectual initiative of his Hillsdale students, frequently incorporating interactive moments like skits into his classes.

“I had a student play the role of employees and had another student play the role of a hiring firm to think about the marginal productivity theory of wages,” Martin said. “I had students take turns stepping on a chair to indicate diminishing marginal returns to labor.”

According to Martin, the technical aspects of the exercise are of less importance than developing intuition.

“The point is to have students see a visual of a concept,” Martin said. “My general instinct is that sitting and listening passively for a long time is hard for us as human beings. Even with the best of will, our attention flags.”

Martin’s theory, which he said he drew from his own mentors, is that periodic breaks or shifts reinvigorate students’ capacity for attention.

“We’re storytelling and story-hearing creatures,” Martin said. “We’re not great at processing abstract thought without a way to humanize it or relate it to the interaction of real people.”

Martin said he hopes graduates of his classes emerge with an active concern for truth, and with the ability to articulate a vision of capitalism compatible with virtue.

“A lot of people think that economics is just about self-interest, which is a species of prudence,” Martin said. “I think it can also be about justice too and mercy in some respects. It’s very much, in my mind, not about ‘get rich by any means necessary.’”

Junior John Frenz described the impact of Martin’s creative pedagogy on his economics education.

“By far the most interesting, in my opinion, of his teaching devices is a bag of plastic gold coins that he has, which are now worn from usage,” Frenz said. “Dr. Martin uses them often during teaching days that involve complex financial situations. These can be banking crises, financial schemes, historical collapse, etc.”

According to Frenz, the tangible coins help students visualize difficult concepts.

“Using them, alongside accompanying charts on the board and commentary from Dr. Martin, students are able to observe in real time the movements of money, how it changes hands in complex banking transactions, how human error or trickery can manipulate the monetary system, and how trade works amongst nations and people,” Frenz said.

Senior Sarah Katherine Sisk said studying economics at Hillsdale was the second best academic decision of her life so far, following only her decision to attend Hillsdale.

“Hillsdale definitely has some of the best economics professors in the world,” Sisk said. “Through all of their classes, you’ll learn that economics is fundamentally about people, so it makes sense that all of the economics professors care so deeply for their students’ academic and personal formation.”