A Game-Based Way to Teach the ‘Why’ of Economics

• Too often, business programs focus on teaching hard skills but fail to engage students in discussions about the role businesses play in society.
• World of Business, a first-year course at the University of Colorado Boulder, explores the roles business institutions play through an emphasis on games, action projects, and discussion, not textbooks and lectures.
• Through hands-on learning, students are forced out of their comfort zones, creating natural pathways for them to expand their vocabularies, shift their perspectives, and consider opinions that differ from their own.

 
The 2024 Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded to three professors whose research highlights the capacity of economic institutions either to hinder or to promote economic growth. Together with the research of several past Nobel Prize winners, this work furthers the idea that society’s institutions play a fundamental role in shaping economic incentives and outcomes through their support of our legal systems, property rights protections, governance structures, or regulatory frameworks.

Such connections are a focus of the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado Boulder, thanks in part to our course called World of Business. Introduced in 2016, the game-initiated curriculum was created by a multidisciplinary team that included Russell Cropanzano, a professor of organizational behavior; J. Chris Leach, a professor of finance (and co-author of this article); Catherine Milburn, a teaching professor in social responsibility and sustainability; and the late Mark Meaney, who was a scholar-in-residence in social responsibility and sustainability.

The World of Business curriculum provides students with a background on how institutions govern markets and why, which provides them with a foundation for discussions about how businesses contribute to, or detract from, broader societal goals. In World of Business, we analyze how market institutions shape innovation, entrepreneurship, and societal well-being. Students come to appreciate the relationship between individual economic freedoms and broader societal goals such as fairness, equality, equity, and environmental protection.

Through this curriculum, students also gain insights into the historical context that has led to the development of our modern business institutions and market economies—and they do so in a somewhat nontraditional fashion. Students do not read textbooks or hear lengthy soliloquies from the professor on the first day of class. Instead, students are immediately immersed in an activity that prepares them for the discussions to come.

Not Enough Seats

In the broader business curriculum, we often teach students how to use Excel and other hard skills, but then forget to engage them in discussions about how and why business adds value to society.

That’s why, on day one of World of Business, students walk into a classroom without enough chairs to accommodate them all. Boom, so begins a lesson about property rights without a single textbook in sight.

The chairs game is like lifting a veil, so that students can see in a new light the everyday security that our rights give us—a security that permits us to plan, build, and trust.

With this “not enough chairs” experiment, students are immersed in a broad and balanced perspective of social, moral, and economic arguments. At first, students are confused and annoyed as they struggle to understand what happened to “their” chairs. In other words, they feel—if only for a moment—the vulnerability that so many others in the world must live with daily. The chairs game is like lifting a veil, so that students can see in a new light the everyday security that our rights give us—a security that permits us to plan, build, and trust.

Students often demonstrate a strong gut reaction to this game. From that point forward, they are 100 percent engaged in the topic and ready to learn more about the role of property rights in business. By the end of the semester, students know the reasons why business is important to society—and they have the vocabulary to articulate them.

Teaching the Why

To be clear, reading is still required in World of Business. Hands-on and game-initiated learning, however, get first dibs.

The course is divided into seven four-session modules that cover the following topics:

• Scarcity and property rights. For example, discussions in this module might cover how governments can seize private property under eminent domain laws to repurpose it for public uses such as highways and hospitals.
• Fairness, equality of opportunity, and the unequal distribution of incomes.
• The fine line between individual liberty and externalities. The latter term refers to how the costs or benefits of a transaction can indirectly affect uninvolved third parties—for instance, a factory might emit pollution that negatively affects nearby neighborhoods.
• The pros and cons of free trade.
• The spectrum between competition and market power and the dynamic process of creative destruction.
• Intellectual property, including topics such as protection of intellectual property and innovation.
• Globalization.

Each module follows a similar schedule:

• We start with Game Day, which highlights an activity to bring to life the concepts we will be discussing. In one such activity focused on innovation and intellectual property, students must use a randomly selected subset of letters to create Scrabble words that they will use to tell stories; once they have created their stories, they can choose either to share with others (open source), patent (to receive patent royalties from others), or keep as trade secrets.
• Next, we have Readings Day, when we dive into the wisdom inherited from big thinkers such as Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman, Adam Smith, Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, and Joseph Schumpeter. We also discuss relevant concepts such as patent and copyright laws.
• Then, we have Case Day, when we relate each topic to a contemporary problem. Here, we might discuss a concept such as the tragedy of the commons as it relates to human activities such as sustainable fishing and outer space exploration. 
• Finally, we have a Point-Counterpoint Day, in which we practice civil discourse. Students are graded on how robustly they acknowledge arguments that go against their own personal viewpoints. We deliberately choose topics for our point-counterpoint discussions to avoid a clear consensus. For example, we might ask students to frame diverse opinions for and against copyrights related to artificial intelligence. 

The modules flow naturally from one another. For instance, in the chairs game, we reserve some of the scarce seats for certain types of individuals, such as left-handed people who might be more comfortable sitting at the left end of a table. In response, some students might question whether it’s appropriate for chairs to be set aside for certain groups, while others might claim to be ambidextrous. These discussions foreshadow our second module on fairness and equality of opportunity.

For the Game Day that begins the third module on individual liberty and externalities, we ask students to engage in a noise-interference activity. During this exercise, some students act as verbal spellers and transcribers of unfamiliar nine-letter words, while others interfere with their efforts by doing the same with different words.

A hands-on, game-initiated classroom environment gives students a deeper appreciation of the role that institutions play in society.

This game can get loud, but the objective is for students to learn how their freedom to pursue gainful activities (in this case, simply trying to be heard as they spell words out loud) might interfere with the freedom of others to do just the same. The intensity of the game drives home the trade-offs that are inherent to our economic reality. In many cases, they find there is no clear right or wrong answer.

Activities in the course also require them to consider a range of viewpoints with which they may or may not agree. In the process, they gain experience in talking about why business is important, regardless of where on the socialism-to-capitalism scale they fall. With an improved vocabulary and education in business and civics, they will be prepared to understand the world of business in which they will operate after graduation.

Different Viewpoints, Deepening Perspectives

Throughout the semester, we focus all discussions on real-life scenarios—and the real implications of those scenarios. That’s why the World of Business curriculum does not take one stance or subscribe to one ideology. Rather, the course explores a diverse range of social, moral, and economic perspectives on business conduct. Students are guided in developing their own critical viewpoints, while also understanding those of others.

Our instructional team draws on disciplines such as law, economics, finance, political science, and sustainability. As students study and debate current and historical issues facing business and society, they formulate a framework for their own participation in, and civil discourse about, the conduct of business. 

It is our firm belief that providing first-year business students with these intellectual tools and discourse skills at the outset of their studies sets them up for a truly comprehensive business education. But to understand these tools at an intuitive level, they need to feel as if they have a stake in the topics we discuss.

A hands-on, game-initiated classroom environment is designed to give students a deeper appreciation of the role that institutions play in society and to get them talking about and engaged in these important topics. So, let’s keep them talking. If you’re interested in learning more or would like to bring this curriculum to your school, let’s chat. We promise there will be enough chairs in the room.

Since 2016, the World of Business curriculum has been adapted and introduced at other U.S. business schools. On June 6–8, 2025, we will be hosting a workshop on the curriculum, including the use of pedagogical methods such as game-based learning and point-counterpoint discourse in business and economics education. If your school wants to join us for this discussion, please send a message to us at [email protected].