These free tools are designed to make economics concepts tangible through interactive simulations. They replace expensive publisher subscriptions and are available to all students.
Welfare Lab
An interactive tariff and tax welfare-math sandbox, built in Summer 2026 for my next ECON 2020 (Principles of Microeconomics) course. Users change market parameters and see consumer surplus, producer surplus, and deadweight loss update in real time. It has not yet been used in a class.
▸ Launch Welfare Lab · Source on GitHub
Tulip Bulb Investment Game
Interactive simulation, used in ECON 2030 (Principles of Macroeconomics), illustrating speculative bubbles and boundedly rational decision-making, with applications to behavioral economics and behavioral finance. Version 2 adds five historical bubble scenarios (Tulip Mania, South Sea Bubble, Florida Land Boom, Dot-com Bubble, Crypto Mania), full Buy / Sell / Hold trading with quantities, an inflation-adjusted Future-Value vs Present-Value breakdown, and a closing reflection connecting the game to today’s AI valuations.
▸ Launch Tulip Bulb Game · Source on GitHub · Original v1
Prisoner’s Dilemma Game
An interactive oligopoly game teaching game theory and strategic interaction under market competition, used in ECON 2020 (Principles of Microeconomics).
“I really liked the lecture where we changed teaching styles and used the game website and talked as a group.” — Spring 2025, ECON 2020, official course evaluation
▸ Launch Prisoner’s Dilemma · Source on GitHub