Computational economics: Help for the underestimated undergraduate

Our concern in this paper is that the capability of economics undergraduates is substantially underestimated in the design of the present college curriculum and that our students are insufficiently challenged and motivated. Students enter our classrooms with substantial previous knowledge about computers and computation and we are not taking full advantage of this opportunity. We suggest a set of examples from computational economics which are challenging enough to motivate students and simple enough that they can master them within a few hours. By encouraging the students to modify the models in directions of their own interest, avenues for creative endeavor are opened which deeply involve the students in their own education. © Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. 2006.