Dammit, psikeyhackr. You said "late entries" but it didn't really register and you got me responding to a dead thread like it's live.
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You likely know this but, just in case: Paul Krugman (noted and controversial Nobel economist) has written an introduction to a recent edition of The Foundation Trilogy which is available online. IIRC, the intro is non-controversial, simply talking about how the stories inspired him. Might make selling it to any holdouts in the class easier - "Hey, read this stuff, win a Nobel prize!"
For more golden oldies, ya gotta have some Heinlein - maybe "The Man Who Sold the Moon" or something.
Philip K. Dick's "Captive Market" is superb.
Maybe Kuttner/Moore's "Piggy Bank", "The Iron Standard".
To segue to slightly newer stuff, I second the
Space Merchants recommendation but I think even the short version is still a short novel (on the other hand, the long one's not too long). Cory Doctorow wrote "Chicken Little" which reminds me even more of aspects of
Gladiator-at-Law but is inspired by
Merchants and Pohl in general. Many Pohl stories would be relevant - especially "The Midas Plague". I don't recall it as clearly as I would like, but "We Purchased People" is another.
Charles Stross' stories that make up
Accelerando come to mind. I can't remember which stories focus on what, unfortunately - they all at least touch on the subject. I know the early stories deal with the protagonist living in his own personal gift/status economy and the later stories deal with basically AI economic programs run amok.
A lot of Bruce Sterling's stuff is cognizant of economic issues but probably not in the way you're looking for. (I don't know how explicit and focused you'd want the stories.) Maybe "Kiosk" would be the most useful (and is a great story, anyway).
I'm not sure if James van Pelt's "Of Late I Dreamt of Venus" would fit or not - it could be used for "long range" vs. "quarterly" thinking, maybe.
I relatively recently read Kyle Kirkland's "Altruism, Inc." which would definitely fit. Alternative economics.
I know there are some themed anthologies but I couldn't name one. There was a series of
Introductory [Subject]
Through Science Fiction books but, surprisingly, there doesn't seem to be one for economics. Psychology, etc., but no economics.
