Teaching Activity: The Balance of Payments Game

The aim of the Balance of Payments Game is for students to make as big a balance of payments surplus as possible!

In this activity students work in teams who decide which policies they are going to use and when. Each policy has two effects - one on the balance of payments (+/-) and the other on the number of seats you have in government.

There is a political cycle of 5 years. At the end of 5 years a team’s balance of seats goes back to 0. If at the end of each 5 year period the team has a negative number of seats they are fined 200 points from their balance of payments. The Balance of Payments balance runs throughout the whole game.