Teaching economics behind the global COVID-19 pandemic

The global COVID-19 pandemic has upended our daily lives in unprecedented ways. Several extraordinary economic events have occurred and have brought some intriguing and important questions to everyone’s mind, creating an immersive teaching and learning environment. This paper shows how economic instructors may take advantage of this opportunity to educate their students with some key economic principles/theories using these COVID-19 related events. Integrating current events into economics instruction can stimulate students’ interests and inspire them to think about the economics behind each event. The relevance and relatedness of these events can also boost students’ motivation and engagement. This paper will foster reflection and discussion among economic instructors on how they may proactively connect what happens in the real world with what students learn in the classroom.