Twenty-seven interactive simulators covering Seminars 2 to 10 of the module. Each one takes a seminar question and makes it adjustable, so you can test a prediction before you read the answer.
Seminar 2: Market forces
Petrol market
Shift supply and demand one at a time or together, then predict which lettered point on the diagram the new equilibrium settles at.
Wheat flour market
Shift either curve and change how elastic it is, then read off the new equilibrium price and quantity against the original.
Chocolate bar market
Solve two linear functions for equilibrium, adjust the intercepts and slopes, and see the shortage or surplus at every price in the schedule.
Seminar 3: Elasticity and surplus
Arc elasticity of demand
Question 1. Move point B and watch the midpoint formula recompute each proportionate change and the price elasticity of demand.
Jan and Lou at the petrol station
Question 3. Slide the pump price and compare perfectly inelastic demand, where Jan always takes 30 litres, with unit elastic demand, where Lou always spends the same.
Cigarette pricing
Questions 4 and 5. Work out the price rise needed for a target fall in smoking, and see how the answer changes as demand becomes more elastic over time.
Consumer surplus and elasticity
Question 6. Pivot the demand curve through a fixed equilibrium and watch the surplus triangle grow as demand becomes less elastic.
Take That album surplus areas
Question 7. Shade each area the question asks for, xzP₁, wzP₁, myP₂ and wyP₂, then shift demand and steepen supply to see who gains.
Oasis dynamic pricing
Question 8. With supply vertical at the arena capacity, compare holding the £148 face value against a £355 dynamic price and see who captures the surplus.
Seminar 4: Cost-volume-profit analysis
Lia’s Coffee Bar: cost curves
Question 1. Change the fixed cost and watch AFC, AVC, ATC and MC move, with marginal cost always cutting average total cost at its lowest point, the efficient scale.
Profit maximisation: MR = MC
Question 2. Total revenue is a straight line while total cost rises faster and faster, so profit is the vertical gap between them and it peaks where marginal revenue equals marginal cost.
Breakeven chart: Lee’s Leathers
Questions 3 and 4. Move the selling price, the costs and the sales commission, and watch the breakeven point, the margin of safety and operating income change.
Seminar 5: Market structures
Profit, entry and long-run equilibrium
Questions 3 and 4. Watch what free entry does to the profit rectangle (P − ATC) × Q, and why barriers to entry let a monopolist keep it.
Airline pricing game
Question 6. Set each airline’s fare, see whether either would want to switch, and find the Nash equilibrium.
Seminar 6: Pricing decisions
Mark-up versus margin
Questions 1 and 2. Set a cost and a price, read the mark-up and the margin side by side, and see how any mark-up converts into a margin.
Hawksmetics: demand, MR and MC
Question 4. Fit a demand curve to seven observations, find where marginal revenue meets marginal cost, and compare that with the cost-plus price of £14.
Seminar 7: Finance for business
NPV and IRR of an investment
Question 1. Discount the future payoff, check whether it beats the €10m outlay, and find the rate at which net present value is exactly zero.
Compound interest and yield
Question 2. Watch a deposit compound year by year, then work backwards to the average annual return as the nth root of the growth factor.
Real and nominal interest rates
Questions 5 and 6. Compare the quick approximation, subtracting inflation, with the exact calculation, dividing (1 + nominal) by (1 + inflation).
Seminar 8: Macroeconomic factors
The market for loanable funds
Question 1. Shift the demand for loanable funds and watch the interest rate, the price of borrowing, fall and draw in other borrowers.
Nominal and real GDP
Questions 2 and 3. Change what happens in 2020 and see which measure moves, since only real GDP, valued at 2018 prices, shows whether more was actually produced.
Aggregate demand and supply: short run to long run
Questions 4 and 5. Shift aggregate demand along SRAS to B, then let wages and input prices adjust until output returns to its natural level at C.
Seminar 9: Government economic policy
The multiplier effect
Question 3. Follow each round of spending as it becomes someone’s income, shrinking round by round but adding up to the initial spend times 1 ÷ (1 − MPC).
Output gaps and policy
Questions 4 and 7. Open a recessionary or an inflationary gap, then close it with demand-side policy or shift potential output itself with supply-side policy.
The money market and the interest rate
Questions 5 and 6. Shift the vertical money supply with open-market purchases or reserve requirements, shift money demand with liquidity preference, and watch the rate balance the two.
Seminar 10: Global business and economics
Jon and Marie: comparative advantage
Question 2. Set how Jon and Marie each spend the day and what they swap, and watch consumption move beyond the production frontier.
Exchange rates: importers and exporters
Questions 4 to 6. Move the sterling to euro rate and see who gains, as a stronger pound makes imports cheaper and exports dearer.
Textbook sources
The questions behind these tools are adapted from the module reading:
- Sloman, J., Garratt, D., Guest, J. and Jones, E., Economics for Business.
- Mankiw, N. G., Taylor, M. P. and Ashwin, A., Business Economics.
- Osadiya, Introduction to Economics, ch. 9.
Each tool names the question, and where relevant the chapter, it is based on in its opening paragraph. The simulators are my own work. They reinterpret the questions rather than reproduce any text, figures or data from these books.
Licence
These tools are released under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). You are welcome to use and adapt them for your own teaching, with attribution, provided you do not use them commercially and you share any adaptation under the same licence.
Suggested citation: Kassai, K. (2026). Teaching tools: interactive simulators for economics and analytics. https://drkassai.com/teaching-tools/