Incentives and Unintended Consequences
Analyzing how positive and negative incentives influence the choices of individuals and firms, and the potential for unintended outcomes.
Key Questions
- Predict how different incentives might alter individual behavior.
- Analyze how unintended consequences can arise from policy incentives.
- Evaluate the effectiveness of various incentive structures in achieving desired outcomes.
Common Core State Standards
Suggested Methodologies
Ready to teach this topic?
Generate a complete, classroom-ready active learning mission in seconds.
More in The Economic Way of Thinking
Introduction to Scarcity and Choice
Investigating how limited resources force individuals and societies to make difficult trade-offs.
3 methodologies
Opportunity Cost and Trade-offs
Exploring the concept of opportunity cost as the value of the next best alternative foregone when a choice is made.
3 methodologies
Production Possibilities Frontier
Using the Production Possibilities Curve to visualize efficiency, growth, and underutilization of resources.
3 methodologies
Shifts in the Production Possibilities Curve
Examining factors that cause the PPF to shift outward (growth) or inward (contraction), such as technology and resources.
3 methodologies
Basic Economic Questions & Systems
Comparing how market, command, and mixed economies allocate resources and define property rights.
3 methodologies