Economic Education, Experimental Methods and the Structure-Conduct-Performance Paradigm

The Structure-Conduct-Performance (SCP) paradigm is commonly used in the field of industrial organization. The paradigm links market structure, firm behavior, and economic performance. Questions of industry organization, firm decision-making and economic efficiency in a wide variety of markets have been addressed using the SCP model. This paper applies the SCP paradigm to the area of economic education. To do this, an alternative model of economic education is developed. In this model, students are viewed as producers (of learning) while instructors determine the institutional setting and are one of the inputs into the production process. This view separates the areas where instructors may exert some control (setting class structure and providing good teaching) from the area where they have little control—student behavior. Using the model developed, this study employs an experiment to investigate student behavior. Students are placed in a strategic situation in which they must choose when and how much to study for weekly quizzes. The experiment represents a unique approach in economic education research and sheds light on student decision making.