Students' Guide - Using the Virtual Economy for your Studies

There are many ways to use the Virtual Economy. You may want to use it just to experiment and test things that you have learnt through your course. In that case you need to go straight to the 4th floor. Initially it may be best to choose the selected variables input form. There are fewer variables to change, and then as you get more used to the model you may want to change more variables. Then you can begin to use the all variables input form.

You can also use the Virtual Economy to help research. You will find a lot of information on both the 2nd and 3rd floors. On the 2nd floor you will find general advice on policy; both fiscal and monetary. You will also find explanations and relevant theories on all the policy tools (income tax, VAT, government expenditure and interest rates) and the outcomes (unemployment, inflation, debt ratio, PSNCR and economic growth). If you are doing business studies you may find the explanations the most useful section, and if you are doing economics you may want to look further at the theories and worksheets. On the 3rd floor - the Library, you will find full information on past economists and the main types of economic theory; neo-classical, Keynesian and Monetarist - again most useful to economics students.

Alternatively, you could use the Virtual Economy to help you to understand the principles and concepts you have learnt through your course. Economics students can use the worksheets on each section and these suggest experiments that you can carry out on the model. They also help you to gather together information on each topic from other parts of the Virtual Economy. There is a full list of worksheets on page 5 of this guide.

Business students may want to use the Case Studies on the 1st floor. These focus on the effect that different economic policies have on businesses, families and different governments. They help to consider some of the issues raised by the policies. You choose a family, business or type of government and then a policy. The results are recorded and you can then consider some of the issues raised.