Prof. Humberto Barreto Publishes Teaching Macroeconomics with Microsoft Excel

April 15, 2016

Humberto Barreto, Elizabeth P. Allen Distinguished University Professor of Economics and Management at DePauw University, is the author of Teaching Macroeconomics with Microsoft Excel. The book, published by Cambridge University Press, provides another resource for teaching college-level economics with Excel in addition to his annual workshop.

"Barreto gives professors a simple way to teach fundamental concepts for any undergraduate macroeconomics course using Microsoft Excel® with Excel workbooks and add-ins and videos freely available on his university website," notes a synopsis. "The Excel files are designed to be used by students with any textbook, and have been used many times by the author in his own teaching. Each Excel workbook contains links to short screencasts, around five to ten minutes, that show the cursor and typing as the file is manipulated with narration that walks the student through the steps needed to complete a task. The book shows professors a simple way to present macroeconomic models and incorporate data into their courses."

Guangjun Qu, assistant professor of economics at Birmingham-Southern College asks, "Can you imagine how excited a student would be when she sits in front of a computer and creates her 'own' economy within seconds? This book can tremendously help an instructor flip a classroom and make learning fun and more student-centered."

Adds the University of Edinburgh's Sean Brocklebank, "For professors, this text is a wonderful complement to an intermediate macro course. Using Excel in class really brings the material to life, and using Excel in assignments helps to build [students'] economic intuition while giving them a marketable skill. And the material can be used piecemeal -- you can pick and choose which bits to put in your course. All macro teachers should think seriously about bringing this approach into the classroom."

Learn more at the publisher's website. A video about the book is embedded below.