Learn Economics by working in a team

Students in the first year of the subject Economics and Business , taught by Professor Mikel Arcelus, have a novel way of learning. Arcelus launched the Master's Competition a few years ago at Economics. "We gave it that name to emulate TV programs such as Master Chef or Master DIY, among others," says the professor.

It is a group competition among students in which they are given suggested questions related to Economics, and they have to answer them by finding the answers on their own. The students have a time limit to answer the questions posed.

"The students have answered questions related to Okun's law, the Phillips curve, the Laffer curve, supply and demand curves, and as a result they will be much better prepared to be able to have criteria and evaluate the electoral campaigns that are upon us," emphasizes Professor Mikel Arcelus. "They have designed macroeconomic policies to attack inflation and low GDP growth and have been encouraged to predict GDP growth for the year 2023."

The students are optimistic about the future of the Spanish Economics , even more so than the Spanish and European Central Banks, and estimate growth of 2.17% for 2023. They base growth on the tourism sector, construction and exports, and consider that the record number of employed people in Spain can also activate consumption and public confidence.

On this occasion there were three winning groups and this year's practice consisted of answering a series of questions about different topics of the Economics such as GDP or inflation. "The teacher handed out a sheet with questions and you had to answer them on class together with your group, chosen by the teacher", emphasizes one of the participants.

The students have been able to learn the importance of working in a group and how essential it is to distribute the different tasks among each of the members, as well as the confidence in the members of your team to know that they will do the job in the best possible way. They also learned how to work with different people, to listen to different opinions and finally come to a conclusion together.

The winning students consider that this practice subject is necessary to learn to work in a team and assimilate the concepts that will later be explained in class. In this edition there were three winning groups and the award consists of going to lunch or dinner as a group.