Econland
The Macroeconomics Simulation: Econland brings economics to life by getting students to make monetary and fiscal policy decisions for a fictional country, with the aim of maximizing the economic well-being of the country’s citizens. Version 2 (released in 2026) includes an AI Advisor, the ability to play in teams, an enhanced user interface and an optional certificate of achievement.
Key Facts
Topics
Macroeconomics
Play Duration
45 minutes
Format
Individual or team
Scenarios
Three scenarios for development of world economy
AI features
‘Simmy’ AI Advisor
Languages
English, Spanish
For universities, this simulation is also available from Harvard Business Impact.
How to play
In Econland, learners manage the economy of a country for a period of 7 years. Players make monetary and fiscal policy decisions in order to make the population happy about the economy, including:
- Interest rate
- Corporate tax rate
- Income tax rate
- Government expenditure
- Each year, players receive information on developments in the global economy, the Consumer Confidence Index and other key economic data.
- The simulation can be played under three scenarios for the development of the world economy, enabling students to replay the game under different conditions.
Succeed and learn
With Econland, students learn to:
- Apply core macroeconomics concepts by making monetary and fiscal policy decisions and then analyzing the consequences of those decisions.
- Recognize that monetary and fiscal policy decisions have important consequences for a country's economy.
- Understand the tradeoffs of monetary and fiscal policy decisions. Decisions that may benefit one area of results may worsen performance in another results area.
- Adapt economic policy decisions to the changing state of the economy of a country, as well as to global economic conditions.
- Recognize that economic models can be useful tools to understand the impact of policy decisions on economic outcomes; however, realize that no economic model is perfectly accurate or 100% complete.
Used all over the world
What educators say
Dr. Declan McCrohan
Modul University
“I have used the Econland in my past three MBA Economics classes. The positive impact on student interest and understanding of macroeconomics has been eye-opening. I have seen a clear improvement in student understanding.”