Abstract:

In the frame of an undergraduate course of International Economic Policy and combining a reduced version of Problem Based Learning (PBL) and role-play game, I prepared a final and voluntary activity for the last two weeks of the semester (December 2021), consisting of a debate on Economic Policy between three different political parties (Progress Party, Democratic Party and New Left Party) with different economic approaches (Keynesian school, Neoclassical school and heterodox schools) during the inauguration ceremony of a new government.

The activity was developed in 4 sessions. The first session was devoted to explaining the activity to the students. Between the first and the second session, those students who wanted to participate in the debate should send an email to put forward his/her candidacy for one of the three political parties. The second session was devoted to vote in the elections (each student should vote to the political party which better represents his/her economic policy view) and to discuss a set of indicators that described the social and economic situation of a fictitious country. After voting in this second session students knew if they were going to participate in the debate as a member of the government (composed by the president and different ministers) or as a member of the opposition (composed by the heads of the opposition and members in charge of different responsibilities). The debate was held during the third session. Based on the school of thought linked to his/her party, students had to propose economic policies geared to solve the social and economic problems discussed in the previous session. Finally, the four session was used as a post-discussion session to review the activity, clarify doubts, and avoid false understandings.

The main goals of the activity were to consolidate students’ knowledge and understanding on Economic Policy, to promote economic pluralism, to be able of diagnosing economic problems from a set of indicators, to use appropriate economic concepts and arguments and to improve student’s capacity to debate and critical view.

Keywords:

Role-Play, Problem Based Learning, International Economic Policy.