The Economic Education Lab

The Team, May 2025 The EEL Team, May 2025

The overarching goal of the Economic Education Lab (EEL) is to improve teaching and learning of economics at the college level. We develop new assessments of economics skills, academic mindset, and how students study. We collect data at Cornell and around the world and analyze it using modern econometric methods. We study everything from gender gaps in performance to the determinants of long-term retention of knowledge to peer-to-peer learning. We also run econ-assessments.org and are cofounders of the Economic Education Network for Experiments (EENE). And we love to collaborate, so get in touch if you want to work with us!

Active Projects

EENE

The Economic Education Network for Experiments (EENE)

EENE is a new collaboration of instructors around the world that cooperate to run synchronized studies in their classrooms.

AMS

The Academic Mindset Study (AMS)

The AMS is an observational study of how academic mindset evolves during the term built on data from over 4,000 students in over 70 courses...

econ-assessments

econ-assessments.org

econ-assessments.org is a web site where economics instructors can set up standard online assessments for their students.

Cornell Suite

The Cornell Suite of Economic Assessments

The Cornell Suite is a set of standard assessments that can be used by economics instructors to evaluate student learning in many economics courses.

Skills Retention

What Do Students Remember after the Course is over?

We examine the retention of economics skills in the months and years after course completion.

Math Skills

Improving Math Skills Using Concurrent Support Courses for Introductory Microeconomics

We use experimental data to estimate the impact of two types of one-credit supplemental support courses on student performance in Introductory Microeconomics.

Who Cares

Who Cares about Economics?

We analyze the determinants and consequences of intrinsic motivation using data from 27 economics courses.

Legacy of COVID

The Legacy of COVID

How do students who went to high school during the COVID-19 pandemic fare in college economics courses compared to earlier cohorts?

Model Visualization

Model Visualization in Introductory and Intermediate Microeconomics

Using model visualization software developed for EconGraphs.org, we have created more than 30 interactive exercises for introductory and intermediate-level microeconomics courses.

Peer Effects

The Effect of Peers on Effort and Achievement

We estimate causal effects of peers on effort and achievement using data on 382 students randomly assigned to 107 groups within three large undergraduate economics...

GenAI

Generative AI

We study how Generative AI is used by students and instructors, and how it influences learning.

Student Stress

Student Stress and Its Impact on Learning During the COVID-19 Pandemic

We use data collected in Spring 2020, Fall 2020, and Spring 2021 to determine how the learning of economics students was affected by perceived stress...

ALI

Active Learning Initiative

How did a multi-year initiative to embed active learning in Cornell’s undergraduate economics curriculum influence student outcomes, and to what extent have these effects persisted?

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Undergrad CAs

Undergraduate Course Assistants

We estimate the impact of Cornell Economics undergraduate Course Assistant (CA) program on students and the CAs themselves.

Dashboard

The Dashboard

The Dashboard is an interactive system that lets Cornell economics instructors interatively and graphically explore course assessment data.