Economics: Phillips Machine Economic Simulator (2 versions)

This HTML simulator is accompanied by a supporting PDF document, designed to help teachers integrate the resource effectively into the classroom with ideas for use, key discussion questions, and reflection prompts.

Meet the Moniac, re-imagined for modern classrooms. This stylised, browser-based simulator turns the famous hydraulic model of the economy into a vivid, hands-on dashboard where students steer an economy in real time. They adjust interest rates, taxation and government spending, then watch the macro story unfold as the “water-tanks” for Consumption, Investment, Government and Net Exports rise and fall to drive GDP via the classic identity $GDP = C + I + G + (X-M)$. The interface pairs those tanks with live readouts for GDP, inflation, unemployment, the fiscal position and debt, so learners can see policy trade-offs rather than just talk about them.

What makes the core simulator so engaging is how much economic detail it surfaces while staying effortless to run. Students can trigger shocks—financial crises, pandemics, supply chain disruptions, inflation spikes or global recessions—and immediately see how flows and stocks respond across the system. Visual status cues announce when conditions shift from “Normal” to “Warning” to “Crisis”, while a prominent central-bank module keeps the stance of monetary policy front and centre. It’s a complete, self-contained experience you can launch on any classroom computer without sign-ins or setup, then reset to baseline at a click for the next activity or group

For depth and realism, an enhanced edition adds time-lags and expectations so policy doesn’t bite all at once. A built-in clock steps the model through quarters and years; transmission bars show the strength of monetary and fiscal channels, and an expectations channel captures how credibility and sentiment shape outcomes over time. External conditions such as world demand and commodity prices can be dialled up or down to explore open-economy dynamics. Students see inflation, unemployment and growth adjust gradually, with multiplier effects, leakages and injections updating as behaviour changes—exactly the kind of dynamic thinking A-Level exam questions demand.

Both versions come with one-click, curriculum-friendly scenarios that mirror real episodes—2008, COVID-19, 1970s-style stagflation and the dot-com cycle—so you can frame retrieval practice, short investigations or longer homework around authentic contexts. Because fiscal and monetary levers sit side by side, learners can trial contrasting mixes, compare budget balances against growth and inflation, and debate policy sequencing. As they do, the simulator surfaces the debt stock and debt-to-GDP metrics that often get sidelined in textbook diagrams, helping students appreciate sustainability as well as stabilisation.

In lessons, the tool works beautifully for whole-class demonstrations, rapid “policy press conference” challenges and independent exploration. Set a shock, ask students to stabilise GDP without breaching an inflation target, and let the room discover the Phillips-curve tension for themselves. Invite groups to present their policy paths and defend the timing and intensity of their interventions; then replay with altered external conditions to test the robustness of their strategies. Because everything is visual and reactive, even hesitant learners get drawn into the mechanics of the circular flow, multipliers, expectations and open-economy trade-offs