The radical plan to change how Harvard
teaches economics
https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/5/14/18520783/harvard-economics-chetty
Economic Opportunity in America: Insights from Big Data Analysis
https://vivekjayakumar.blogspot.com/2019/03/economic-opportunity-in-america.html
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My personal take on what to teach principles of economics students:
I think that the bigger point of the on-going debate at both UK and US universities is not to overhype the extent to which simple theories (shorn of nuances) can be used to provide concrete answers or solutions to difficult real-world problems. Or worse, offer up ideologically-driven answers to complicated real-world questions. There are a lot of issues that are quite tricky (the ‘ceteris paribus’ assumption frequently does not hold in the real world), and most undergraduate students are fully aware of this and don’t mind being challenged to think harder. If we want to make sure that economics is some sort of a scientifically-oriented field that is not ideology-based (and not distorted by personal political opinions of the faculty), we need to emphasize empirical findings even in Principles of Economics courses.
Dylan Mathews notes:
“Reading through
Mankiw’s introductory textbook, one gets a sense that economics is the study of
supply and demand. Reading through the syllabus for Chetty’s Economics 1152,
one gets a very different sense of the field. The economics he describes is,
essentially, a kind of applied statistics, an attempt to use quantitative data
to answer social questions.”Economic Opportunity in America: Insights from Big Data Analysis
https://vivekjayakumar.blogspot.com/2019/03/economic-opportunity-in-america.html
--
My personal take on what to teach principles of economics students:
I think that the bigger point of the on-going debate at both UK and US universities is not to overhype the extent to which simple theories (shorn of nuances) can be used to provide concrete answers or solutions to difficult real-world problems. Or worse, offer up ideologically-driven answers to complicated real-world questions. There are a lot of issues that are quite tricky (the ‘ceteris paribus’ assumption frequently does not hold in the real world), and most undergraduate students are fully aware of this and don’t mind being challenged to think harder. If we want to make sure that economics is some sort of a scientifically-oriented field that is not ideology-based (and not distorted by personal political opinions of the faculty), we need to emphasize empirical findings even in Principles of Economics courses.
See for example these posts that highlight a wide range of opinions/results related to four complicated/controversial issues:
NIMBYism and Housing Shortage
Impact of Minimum Wage Hikes:
Gender Pay Gap Debate:
Climate Change and the Carbon Tax Debate:
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For the record, I lean towards centrist libertarianism:
Centrist Libertarianism