Teaching the Keynesian Multiplier as a Feedback System: A System Dynamics Flight Simulator for Economics Instruction

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Abstract
This teaching note presents a parsimonious system dynamics formulation of the Keynesian multiplier and illustrates how it can be deployed as a flight simulator in a college‐level macroeconomics course. Building on prior work that proposed a staged framework for integrating system dynamics into economics instruction, we focus here on Level I of that hierarchy: introducing feedback thinking through a causal loop diagram and enabling exploration of dynamic behavior using a simple pre‐built simulation. Three classroom pilots conducted by instructors without formal training in system dynamics demonstrate the feasibility and usability of this approach. Rather than replacing traditional textbook analysis, the causal diagrams and the flight simulator function as a structural debriefing of Keynesian multiplier representations in mainstream economics textbooks, making feedback loops, delays, and adjustment processes explicit.

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