Teaching an undergraduate elective on the Great Recession (and the COVID-19 recession too)

ABSTRACT

The authors describe an undergraduate economics elective focused on the Great Recession and the recession resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. They have taught the course with great success at both liberal arts colleges and research universities and at all levels of the curriculum ranging from a first-year seminar to an upper-level elective. They present a roadmap for instructors interested in offering the class. Although intermediate macroeconomics is assumed as a prerequisite, the authors discuss how they have adapted the class for students with different backgrounds. The course is divided into seven units the housing bubble and asset pricing, housing policy and history, propagation and panic, monetary policy, fiscal policy, aftermath and international perspectives, and the macroeconomics of COVID-19. Sample assignments and readings are both provided. © 2022 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.