This course gives a historical perspective on financial panics. Topics include the growth of the industrial world, the Great Depression and surrounding events, and more recent topics such as the first oil crisis, Japanese stagnation, and conditions following the financial crisis of 2008.

Looking for engaging content for your economics courses? The Institute for Humane Studies has curated this collection of educational resources to help economics professors enrich their curriculum. Find videos, interactive games, reading lists, and more on everything from opportunity costs to trade policy. This collection is updated frequently with new content, so watch this space!

Many people are concerned with growing income inequality, but according to Professor Antony Davies of Duquesne University, there are a lot of misconceptions about inequality. In this lecture, Professor Davies explores five common myths about inequality, covering topics like profit, types of equality, and the standard of living.

Learn how the Gini coefficient can be used to interpret income inequality in this video.

Society does a lot to improve our health, from sanitation to healthy foods. But society can have negative impacts on our health as well, and whether or not we get the positive impacts or the negative ones, can often come down to social and economic standing. In this episode of Crash Course Public Health, we’re going to take a look at some of the basic societal elements that affect our health, and why they are often tied to economic inequality.

Chapters:
Introduction: Society and Your Health
Defining Society
Food Inequality
Housing Inequality
Healthcare Inequality
Income Inequality
Socioeconomic Status
Review & Credits
Credits

Income inequality in America is a serious issue. People are worried about a widening gap between the rich and the poor in the United States. But is the global story the same? In this video, Professor Tyler Cowen of George Mason University explains how globalization is affecting income inequality worldwide.

As English teachers, we often teach novels that reflect the struggles of racism and poverty within the African American community through the twentieth century. Landmark civil rights laws in the 1960’s changed the legal landscape of freedom in our country, but equality of opportunity and economic prosperity is still hindered by political policy and racism. It is critically important to reveal these truths to students, especially students in the African American community. However, as teachers, we should also be offering solutions to economic disparity that go beyond angry rhetoric, which are based in logic and are data-driven. What are some concrete ways families and individuals can break the cycle of poverty? What kinds of services should we as a society be fighting for? How does income parity benefit all of us? What are some ways to achieve this, and achieve a society that is more meritorious and efficient? This unit uses the play, A Raisin in the Sun as a model. The dreams of the Younger family are posed to students as choices to break out of poverty. Students will research the effects of moving to a good neighborhood, home ownership, college education, and entrepreneurship as economic paths to success.

Instructor OverviewThis project will allow students to model income inequality with fictitious scenarios/countries.  Students will:Compute cummulative quintiles and cummalative incomeDisplay data in tables and graphs.Compute the areas of bars in a graph and their sumsDetermine the difference between the sums of bars from different scenarios and form a ratio that estimates the Gini Coefficient..Draw conclusions and make recommendations based on data

This lesson embarks on an exploration of how America’s deep-rooted car culture emerged and its lasting impact on modern life. Students will understand the decline of early public transportation systems and how World War II catalyzed rapid technological advancements, leading to a shift in infrastructure and business priorities. They'll analyze how post-war economic prosperity fueled mass motorization, with cars becoming a status symbol for Americans. Three key drivers—post-WWII technological advancements, urban sprawl, and the rise of car culture—serve as a framework for understanding the U.S.'s car reliance. Through evidence-based analysis, students will then apply these concepts to case studies, deducing why cities remains so car-centric. They will consider factors such as climate, geography, political and economic resistance to change, and cultural values. Ultimately, the lesson challenges students to reflect on the sustainability of current transportation systems and explore potential solutions to create a more equitable and environmentally-friendly future.

The course examines the causes and effects of rapid urbanization in developing countries. Using case studies from the world’s four major developing regions, including (among others) Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Managua, Singapore, Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Kabul, Beirut, Cairo, Kinshasa, Cape Town and Johannesburg, it explores the economic and political dynamics that grease the wheels of contemporary patterns of growth. In addition to examining both local and transnational forces that drive contemporary urbanization, the course focuses on key issues that emerge in rapidly growing cities of the developing world, ranging from growing income inequality and socio-economic exclusion, environmental challenges, and rising violence. Class sessions are discussion-based and focus on a critical analysis of the arguments presented in the readings.