Issue 22, February 2018

The Spanish Economically Active Population Survey, carried out by the Spanish Statistical Office since 1964, is one of the main tools for analyzing the labor market in Spain. However, the complexity that characterizes the design and the implementation process can make it difficult to study the labor market among the students. Especially, among those who start to study Macroeconomics. This paper proposes an alternative methodology, easier and more pedagogical, with the purpose of examining the evolution of the different population categories and deepening the information provided by the most basic indicators. Through three independent, but complementary activities, the students are actively involved in the development of an exercise that draws the most remarkable advantages of this essential instrument.

Quantitative methods provide an essential tool of analysis in virtually all branches in economics, including also Public Economics. The analysis of public policies, their effectiveness and their efficiency is of special relevance, and therefore, an element that must be transferred also to the classroom. The subject Quantitative Methods taught in the degrees of Economics, Finance and Accounting and Business Management of the Universitat Jaume I has a remarkable practical component, which includes exercises in the branch of Public Economics, among others. This paper describes the implementation of mobile learning methods in the class. In particular, students competition in class using the Socrative platform. The results suggest improvements in the acquisition of knowledge and in the participation of the students in lessons, as well as a high rate of acceptance and satisfaction among students.

Sometimes our classes are focused on methodologies that prioritize the transmission of content for the passing of a final exam, but we do not get our students to improve certain skills or abilities because their role in the classroom is passive. There are more and more pedagogical models that use a constructivist approach to the teaching-learning process, such as the flipped classroom methodology. The choice of this pedagogical model requires the reconversion of the master class and its materials, which should be made available to the student with sufficient didactic appeal to work outside the classroom with analytical and interpretative capacity and, subsequently, to take advantage of the classroom time. Although its implementation is higher in compulsory education, the flipped classroom is growing as a pedagogical model that incorporates active learning in university classrooms. This paper presents the "inverse class” teaching experience developed in the area of Applied Economics, in the subject of "Economy and Public Sector Finance" of the Degree in Management and Public Administration of the Faculty of Business and Management Public of the Zaragoza University. The results confirm that the students acquire greater responsibility, confidence and commitment in their own learning and, consequently, a significant improvement in the teaching-learning results.

In this recension it is evaluated ‘The Economy: Economics for a Changing World’ which can be freely downloaded in the following link http://www.core-econ.org/the-economy/book/. This book aims to be the reference book in the introductory course of Economics around the world. Opposite to other books this one incorporates several topics which economists use daily but that are ignored such as financial bubble, natural experiment or discrimination.