From ABBA to Led Zeppelin: using music to teach economics
From ABBA to Led Zeppelin: using music to teach economics

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The Road Not Taken - Bruce Hornsby

JEL: a       

Down in the southwest Virginia town of Richlands
I fell in love with an Appalachian girl
She lived in a long line of little row houses
On the side of an old strip mining hill
She walked along on the jagged ridge
And looked as far as she could see
But the hills out there so up and down
You only see as far as the next big ridge
Everytime I see her face
On the street in the hollow of on the hill
Another time and another place
I feel her in my heart still
Everytime I see her face
On the street in the hollow in the bend
I see her in my mind and then
I go down the road not taken...again

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Assignment:

The song title is borrowed from Robert Frost’s poem of the same name. Read the full lyrics and then read Frost’s The Road Not Taken, both works evoke a sense of loss. Formally transfer this idea into economic language by relating each to opportunity cost and sunk cost.

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