SMART Handout: An Innovative Tool to Empower Applied General Equilibrium Teaching

Instructors of applied general equilibrium (AGE) courses usually face an important challenge: how to effectively and efficiently teach a large number of complex materials that are necessary for AGE analysis, including general equilibrium theory, producer and consumer theory, equational expression and model implementation. To overcome this challenge, in this paper we propose an innovative teaching tool, the SMART handout, which is a Wiki-style interactive handout that connects materials from AGE and several prerequisite courses and forms a knowledge network for easier cross-reference and deeper understanding. We take the Global Trade Analysis Project model as an example to demonstrate how a SMART handout is developed and applied in AGE teaching. This innovative tool can be generalized to other AGE courses, thereby contributing to building the capacity of future AGE researchers.