.webp)
Engaging Gen Z Students with Economic Lessons Featuring MrBeast
Educators must evolve from a mindset of teaching millennials about economics (Carrasco-Gallego, 2017) to focusing on the next generation of students: Generation Z, those born between 1997 and 2012.
We summarize the application of economic concepts in viral YouTube videos created by Jimmy Donaldson, known more popularly online as MrBeast. His viral videos are known for expensive challenges and are incredibly popular among Gen Z students. We present three lesson plans based on three different MrBeast videos that include episode summaries, key economic concepts, and multiple assessment questions. The lesson plans focus on core economic concepts and include opportunities to teach concepts such as scarcity, opportunity cost, marginal analysis, business costs, and production. With more than 170 million subscribers as of this writing and over 29 billion views, MrBeast’s viral videos offer a unique opportunity for creatively teaching economics to a new generation of students.
Read the Full Paper
This paper was originally published by the Journal of Economics Teaching
Economic Dynamism

AI and the Future of Society and Economy
Large language and generative AI models like ChatGPT are the equivalent of the first automobiles: fun to play with, somewhat unreliable, and maybe a little dangerous. But over time, the lesson for will be clear: Who Learns Fastest, Wins.

Automated Detection of Emotion in Central Bank Communication: A Warning
Can LLMs help us better understand the role of emotion in central bank communication?

How We Built the Arsenal of Democracy
By unleashing the energy, creativity, and drive of the private sector to rebuild our defense-industrial base, we can trigger a tech-industrial revival of the American economy.

The $130 Billion Train That Couldn’t
California’s High Speed Rail is only the latest blue-state infrastructure failure.

Don’t Californicate, Floridize, or Kentuckify My AI
State laws that dictate commerce and community decisions elsewhere — extraterritorial laws — chip away at that individual choice and erode the power of each state to preserve and advance its political values.

Slowly Strangling the Pharmaceutical Industry
Unlike many private uses of monopoly power, a government monopoly, backed by state force, can last a long time.