This article illustrates and outlines a series of activities that undergraduate economics professors could use to introduce their principles and upper-level students to topics related to production economics, price discrimination, market structure, and game theory using a timely example and readily identifiable characters.The exercises are autonomous and may be used in isolation.The main characters are Elon Musk (CEO of Tesla and SpaceX) and Jeff Bezos (CEO of Amazon and Blue Origin).The objective of this classroom activity is to work through a hypothetical example of what competition between SpaceX and Blue Origin may look like as they compete in the future for commercial space supremacy.Moreover, the learning activities in these exercises are structured in a way that encourages students to participate in a given activity first and then reflect on what they did and how they could have improved their outcome or profitability by applying analysis and economic thinking.Students watch videos before the exercises to flip the classroom.

Pokémon GO is a free-to-play, location-based, augmented reality game developed by Niantic for iOS and Android devices.The game draws on the familiarity of Nintendo's Pokémon video games, which led to trading card games, animated television shows and movies, comic books, and toys that grew in popularity in the late 1990s and early 2000s.Users in Pokémon GO explore the real world around them in an attempt to catch 'em all.The game quickly grew to over 25 million active daily users in 2016, making it the biggest mobile game in U.S. history.Given that many college and high school students have played the game, this provides a unique opportunity for instructors to use this viral sensation in the classroom to enhance economics education.

Students in economics classrooms are increasingly digital natives, raised in a culture of engagement, expression and learning through online interactions using technological devices. We have turned the concept of a ‘selfie’ into an instructional tool for students to demonstrate their understanding of economic concepts, as well as to engage personally with those concepts. A student self-assessment survey supports the expectations of the literature that our ECONSelfie assignment leverages the power of visuals and narratives to help students link themselves with introductory economics material for improved learning outcomes.

"Economics Memes: How to use Memes to Teach and Learn Economics." The Journal of Economic Education, 45(1), pp. 75–76

The purpose of this paper is to look at the effects of the global economic crisis on the North American professional sports industry, and more specifically some of the examples of how the significant change in the global economic landscape has had a direct effect on the sport business industry. The most interesting of these effects is the increase in the number of bankruptcies that have occurred over the past five years. An analysis of these bankruptcies in professional sports over the recent past will be described, including their causes and results. Specific analysis will focus on the marketing implications of these bankruptcies, including the challenges faced by marketing practitioners both internal and external to the professional sports industry. This paper will conclude with recommendations of how sport businesses should potentially operate going forward in this trying economic landscape from both an economic and marketing application perspective.