This paper presents three lesson plans that use the rise of Poppi-a prebiotic soda brand that originated as "Mother Beverage" and gained national prominence after appearing on Shark Tank-to teach the core principles of monopolistic competition. We begin with a short video-based exercise in which students predict investor interest in the original Shark Tank pitch and finish by revealing that Poppi ultimately sold to PepsiCo for $1.95 billion in May 2025. This exercise provides an engaging and immersive gateway to the key features of monopolistic competition: product differentiation, scale, and markets with relatively low barriers to entry. We connect Poppi's marketing strategy, rebranding, and rapid growth to classroom discussions that highlight how differentiation, perceived quality, and strategic pricing shape outcomes in such markets. Each lesson plan includes a Kahoot to provide instructors with a practical and memorable way to illustrate these concepts.

We analyze recent citation data to identify leading contributors and rising scholars in the field of economics education. Using a curated list of journals endorsed by the American Economic Association’s Committee on Economic Education, we construct a focused i10 index based on citations received between 2020 and 2024. This metric emphasizes sustained influence across multiple papers and avoids distortions caused by singly highly cited articles. Our results include rankings of top-cited scholars overall, high performers by i10 index, impactful early- and mid-career scholars, and leading researchers outside of North America. Additionally, we also identify the ten most cited articles during our sample period to highlight topics resonating with current researchers. In doing so, we document the breadth of contemporary economics pedagogy research and recognize the evolving institutional professional roles of those contributing to its growth.

Traditional economic models often fail to capture the nuanced realities of modern market behavior, specifically the rise of "hidden" inflation. This paper investigates shrinkflation and skimpflation-the strategic practices of reducing product quantity and quality while maintaining stable sticker prices. These tactics exploit consumer inattention and violate the ceteris paribus principle, effectively masking cost-push dynamics. Yergin et al. (2024) argue that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) fails to capture the psychological and economic reality of inflation experienced by consumers. To help students appreciate the subtle differences between their lived experiences and the way in which inflation is calculated, we provide instructional scaffolding that utilizes viral media to ground the abstract inflation data. We present four practical lesson plans designed to enhance economic literacy and critical consumption skills. Ultimately, exposing these hidden costs helps students reconcile official statistics with their personal financial realities.

This paper builds upon the work of McCaffrey (2016) who explores how economics can enhance entrepreneurship education by discussing the social and institutional basis of entrepreneurship. We build upon the work of McCaffrey in two distinct ways. First, we emphasize the economic understanding every entrepreneur needs to be successful. This approach helps students understand the crucial role that economics plays in ascertaining whether or not an entrepreneurial activity is worthwhile or not. Second, we developed three lesson plans that feature Gen Z entrepreneurs, building upon the work of Milovanska-Farrington et al. (2023) and DeWind et al. (2023) who illustrate foundation-level economics concepts in an engaging way that resonates with Gen Z students. We feature three successful Gen Z entrepreneurs - Mikaila Ulmer, Max Hayden and Alexandr Wang. Their stories embody business acumen and the entrepreneurial ability necessary to succeed in a rapidly changing world.

The sunk cost fallacy is typically covered in introductory economics courses. It is among the most important biases that influence decision making. Ronayne et al. (2021a,b) find evidence of behavior consistent with the sunk cost effect and utilize eight questions that measure individuals' susceptibility to the sunk cost fallacy. We extend their research by examining whether a "pop culture" teaching intervention in principles of microeconomics lowers students' predisposition to the fallacy. We find that students become -14.95% less susceptible to the sunk cost fallacy after learning about it. We also observe that students who have taken economics previously exhibit lower susceptibility in all time periods.

This paper provides three immersive lesson plans that showcase the intricate relationship between economic dynamism and economic growth, emphasizing the narrative power of images to illustrate the concept of creative destruction. Economic dynamism is the process by which innovation, entrepreneurship, and market forces continually reshape industries and economies. Creative destruction, a term coined by economist Joseph Schumpeter, embodies this transformative process in which new technologies, ideas, and business models replace outdated ones, leading to economic progress. This work is especially timely, as Joel Mokyr, Philippe for their work on how innovation and the forces of creative destruction can drive economic growth.

Taylor Swift is the most iconic music artist of her generation; her current Eras Tour is already the highest grossing of all time. Given her fame, fortune, and popularity among Millennials and Gen Z, which make up the vast majority of today’s college and high school students, Taylor Swift’s career offers a myriad of opportunities for teaching economics. The impact of her career has led to a new term entering the economics lexicon: Swiftonomics (the economics of Taylor Swift, and Swift’s impact on the economy). This paper provides two lesson plans that make use of the Taylor Swift phenomenon to illustrate the concepts of supply and demand and exchange rates. For each lesson plan, we provide links to videos and news articles and a range of assessment activities involving Quizizz and a standalone handout which can be used in-class or assigned for homework. The size, diversity, and devotion of Taylor Swift’s fanbase (colloquially known as Swifties) presents economic educators with a unique opportunity to incorporate economic lessons within their current curriculum, from high school through to an introductory economics course at the college level.

Many college students experience symptoms of mental health challenges, with depression and anxiety being among the most common concerns. These problems negatively affect their academic performance (Brännlund et al. 2017) and overall health (Yang et al. 2024). In the 2021 Healthy Minds Study, 41% of the participating students tested positive for depression, 34% suffered from anxiety, 12% had an eating disorder, 40% were diagnosed with a lifetime mental disorder, and 13% reported suicidal thoughts in the previous year. These statistics are both concerning, and unfortunate given that there are easy ways to maintain good mental health. In this paper, we propose engaging activities that can be implemented in introductory economics classes to illustrate economic concepts while promoting wellness. Learning activities that promote wellness in economics serve a twofold purpose, knowledge acquisition and better mental health outcomes for students, both of which are public goods.

In order to assist economics educators at all levels, we have created a website www.music4econ

Taylor Swift is the most popular music artist in the world and her current Eras tour is the highest grossing of all time. MrBeast is a self-made billionaire. His viral videos are known for expensive challenges and are incredibly popular among Gen Z students. This paper builds on work done by Milovanska-Farrington et al. (2023) which looked at female influencers popular among Gen Z students and Geerling et al. (2023a and 2023b) who used viral videos to teach foundation economics. Taylor Swift and MrBeast are incredibly successful entrepreneurs. Incorporating their backstories and business acumen into the curriculum creates an opportunity to generate interest, improve engagement, and ultimately help students comprehend economic concepts through stories that resonate with their generation.

The Test of Understanding in College Economics (TUCE) is a standardized test of economics knowledge performed in the United States which primarily targets principles-level understanding. We asked ChatGPT to complete the TUCE. ChatGPT ranked in the 91st percentile for Microeconomics and the 99th percentile for Macroeconomics when compared to students who take the TUCE exam at the end of their principles course. The results show that ChatGPT is capable of providing answers that exceed the mean responses of students across all institutions. The emergence of artificial intelligence presents a significant challenge to traditional assessment methods in higher education. An important implication of this finding is that educators will likely need to redesign their curriculum in at least one of the following three ways: reintroduce proctored, in-person assessments; augment learning with chatbots; and/or increase the prevalence of experiential learning projects that artificial intelligence struggles to replicate well.

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Price controls are a popular topic among students. However, the effects of implementing price controls are not as straightforward as students typically expect, especially the unintended consequences that students tend to overlook. This paper provides three teaching guides designed to teach price controls which can be easily implemented in an introductory-level economics course. We build on the work of Geerling et al. (2023c) by using short-form viral videos from popular platforms such as YouTube and TikTok, which match the streaming and content medium of choice for Gen Z. The use of celebrities and social media influencers make abstract teaching moments more relatable to students. As such, this paper offers a unique opportunity for creatively teaching economics to a new generation of students.

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 economics 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 135 million subscribers as of this writing and over 22 billion views, MrBeast’s viral videos offer a unique opportunity for creatively teaching economics to a new generation of students.

While women comprise nearly 60% of all undergraduate students in the United States (Causey et al. 2023), they account for less than one-third of economics majors (Buckles 2019). There are few female role models in economics textbooks. When economists are mentioned in class, they are typically male. To help address this lack of diversity and engage female students, we present teaching guides based on four of the most popular female influencers among Gen Z students. Each guide highlights an influencer's backstory and business acumen. This paper builds on the work of Geerling et al. (2023b and 2023c) who use viral YouTube and TikTok videos to engage Gen Z students on their social media platforms of choice. This paper offers a unique opportunity for educators to teach foundation level economics concepts in a creative way while helping stimulate engagement among all students.

Economic educators have been teaching with pop culture for decades, but the idea of using foreign-language teaching resources to create a more inclusive and diverse classroom has only recently been taken up. This paper builds on the work of Wooten et al. (2020), who have shown how K-pop can be integrated into an English-language classroom. We expand on that work by compiling a set of 12 teaching guides using material from 12 different countries that demonstrate economic concepts commonly taught in a principles of microeconomics course. Al-Bahrani (2020) has called on educators to take a deliberate approach to diversifying their lecture material. It is our hope that, with time, broadly diverse and inclusive media will be ubiquitous when students are introduced to economics.