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The Effects of the Chair the Fed Simulation on High School Students’ Knowledge

Author

Listed:
  • Evgeniya Duzhak
  • Jody Hoff
  • Jane S. Lopus

Abstract

Chair the Fed is an award-winning online simulation developed by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco to teach about the role of the Fed in achieving its dual mandate goals of stable prices and maximum employment. It is widely used, with an average of close to 85,000 games started each month in 2019. This article describes Chair the Fed and the results of a controlled experiment to determine its effects on learning in high school economics classes in the Fed’s 12th district. We find that students who played Chair the Fed score significantly higher on a 10-question posttest compared with students who learned about the Fed and monetary policy in more traditional ways. In evaluating our results, we compare difference-in-difference regression modeling with the traditional economic education model where the posttest score is regressed on the pretest score, and find that our results are robust across both specifications. JEL Classifications : A20, A21, E52, E58

Suggested Citation

  • Evgeniya Duzhak & Jody Hoff & Jane S. Lopus, 2021. "The Effects of the Chair the Fed Simulation on High School Students’ Knowledge," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 66(1), pages 74-89, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:amerec:v:66:y:2021:i:1:p:74-89
    DOI: 10.1177/0569434520971193
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Reisdorfer-da-Silva, Rômulo César & Becker, Kalinca Léia & Vieira, Kelmara Mendes, 2025. "The impact of board games on the financial literacy of public-school students," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    2. Hannes Wallimann & Silvio Sticher, 2025. "How to Use Data Science in Economics – A Classroom Game Based on Cartel Detection," Simulation & Gaming, , vol. 56(3), pages 289-306, June.

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    JEL classification:

    • A20 - General Economics and Teaching - - Economic Education and Teaching of Economics - - - General
    • A21 - General Economics and Teaching - - Economic Education and Teaching of Economics - - - Pre-college
    • E52 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Monetary Policy
    • E58 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Central Banks and Their Policies

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