Using Popular Music to Teach Principles of Economics: Beyoncé's Take on Demand and Quantity Demanded

Abstract

Academic economists must teach students in principles-level classes the fundamental concepts of economics so that students become informed participants within the democratic process of collective choice over public policy (Boettke, 2012, 2011). Any good student of economics must know the distinction between demand and quantity demanded (Hayne, Boettke, and Prychitko, 2010). Economics is a social science that arrives at the knowledge through different epistemological procedures. This paper proposes the active learning exercise that uses the lyrics of the popular song “Irreplaceable” performed by American R&B singer Beyonce Knowles to teach students the fundamental concepts of demand and quantity demanded.

Keywords: economics education, teaching of economics, demand curve, quantity demanded

JEL Classification: A20, A22