In the Economy Simulator, your whole class runs one economy together. You might rent an apartment and hold a job, own buildings, run a business or a bank, set taxes as Finance Minister, or enforce the rules as Regulator. Every deal you make moves prices for everyone else. Your teacher runs the rounds, and after each one you find out how your choices (and everyone else's) worked out.
Your goal: grow your net worth from round to round without letting your stress climb or your reputation slip.
Getting in
Click Simulators in your sidebar.
Open the Economy band.
Click Start Economy (or Continue Economy if you've already been in).
If your teacher hasn't started a simulation yet, you'll see a message saying so. You don't need to do anything: the page checks every few seconds and takes you in as soon as it starts.
If you see "You're not in this simulation", the simulation started before you joined the class, so you don't have a seat in it. Your teacher can include you when the next one begins.
Before round 1: the lobby
Your teacher gives everyone a role when the simulation starts. Until round 1 begins, you'll see Waiting for round 1, your role and what it does, and the class roster with everyone's role. Nobody can make moves yet. It's a good time to read your role and look at the City Map.
The six roles
Renter / Employee: pick a place to live and a job every round. Homes and jobs reset each round, so you have to choose again every time. You can also buy goods and use a bank.
Landlord: set the rent on each of your units and try to keep them full, while covering taxes and maintenance. Your rent stays as you set it, but tenants choose again every round.
Business Owner: post your wage and job openings, and the price and amount of goods you sell. Pay at least the minimum wage if the Regulator sets one.
Banker: set your loan rate, deposit rate and fees, and approve or decline loan applications. The Fed (your teacher) caps how high your loan rate can go.
Finance Minister: set taxes and government spending, like benefits for people without a job or home, and decide how much the Regulator gets to spend on enforcement. Your settings stay until you change them.
Regulator: set the rules (like rent control or a minimum wage), pick who to audit, and fine people who break the rules. Your enforcement budget comes from the Finance Minister, and whatever you don't use by the end of the round is lost.
Most roles can also lobby, which means offering money to the Finance Minister or Regulator in exchange for something you want. They decide whether to accept.
Playing a round
Check the top of your screen. It shows your role, your key numbers (like cash, net worth, stress or reputation), and Round 3 of 8 (for example). "Waiting on teacher" means the round is open and your teacher will close it.
Read your checklist. The This round: strip lists what your role needs to do, like Choose housing or Set your rates, and counts how many must-dos you've done.
Make your decisions. Use the tabs for your role (for example, a renter has Housing, Work, Goods and Banking) and click the button for each choice, like Rent this home or Take this job. You'll see "Locked in for this round".
Check what you've locked in. The Locked in for round 3 box lists every decision you've made. Changed your mind? Click Withdraw on it. You can withdraw anytime before the round closes.
Wait for your teacher. Nothing happens until your teacher closes the round. Then everyone's decisions are worked out together, all at once.
Read your recap. A recap pops up: how your net worth changed, What happened to you (wages, rent, taxes and more), and anything that happened In the broader economy, like a recession. Click Play round 4 (or whatever the next round is) to keep going.
Your screen updates by itself when your teacher moves to the next round. You don't need to refresh.
Things that catch people out
Renters start fresh every round. If you don't choose a home and a job, you're homeless and out of work for that round.
It's not first come, first served. If more people want the same home or job than there's room for, the winners are picked at random. If you miss out, try a different one next round.
Stress builds up. Each round you're homeless adds 20 stress, and each round without a job adds 10. Stress doesn't go back down. If it reaches 100, you get an emergency loan that you have to pay back with steep interest over the next few rounds.
Reputation follows how you play. A clean round earns a little reputation. Getting caught breaking a rule costs a lot more.
The round can be frozen. If your teacher pauses for a class discussion, a "Simulation frozen" banner appears and you can't lock in or withdraw anything until they resume.
More tabs to explore
Below your decisions are four more tabs:
Marketplace: every rental and job in the economy, with prices, wages and reputations.
My Holdings: your cash, whether you have a home and a job, and what you own, owe and have saved.
My Activity: what happened to you last round.
Round Status: the whole economy's numbers (average rent, wages and prices, unemployment and vacancy) and the regulations in effect.
The panel on the right side shows more about the economy, the taxes in effect, and how much people trust the government.
The City Map
The first tab for every role is City Map: your class's economy drawn as a town. Blue roofs with lit windows are homes someone is renting; gray roofs with the lights off are empty. Traffic and people on the streets follow last round's trading. A pink marker floats over the places that are yours. Look for three landmarks: the domed Federal Reserve (where your teacher sets the interest rate), the Treasury with the clock tower (the Finance Minister) and the Regulator's office.
Use 3D or Flat map to switch views, and Labels to show or hide the neighborhood names. Hover a label to outline that part of town, or click it to zoom in. If 3D is slow on your device, switch to the flat map; it shows the same town.
When the simulation ends
After the last round, your screen turns into your final report. It shows your net worth over the whole simulation, what you ended with, your stress and reputation, how your last round went, how the class economy turned out, how you compare with the class, and a few questions to think about for the class discussion.
Use Download PDF or Download data (.csv) to keep a copy. Do it while the report is on your screen. Your Reports page also keeps a summary of your Economy results, including your net worth by round.
Common questions
There's nothing for me to do.
If you see Waiting for round 1, the simulation hasn't started its first round yet. If you see the frozen banner, your teacher has paused the round. Otherwise, check your checklist and your role's tabs; some roles, like the Finance Minister, have settings that stay in place, so a quiet round can be fine.
It says "Simulation is paused; the teacher has frozen actions for this round."
Your teacher paused the round. Wait for them to resume it.
I didn't get the home or job I picked.
Someone else may have wanted it too, and the winners are picked at random. Choose again next round.
Why is my net worth so much lower than my friend's?
Different roles start with different amounts and earn in different ways. Compare yourself with your own last round, not with someone in another role.
Can I change my role?
No. Your teacher's setup decides roles, and they stay the same for the whole simulation.
The decisions I locked in disappeared.
If a new round has started, your decisions were used: check your recap to see how they worked out. Otherwise, your teacher may have cleared your locked-in decisions so you could start the round over. Check with your teacher, then make your choices again.