There is a big problem with economics education. PhD programs are producing applied mathematicians and statisticians with little or no knowledge of economics. Price theoryAt the undergraduate level, social control (“Market failure!”) and activism (“Inequality!”) have replaced careful reasoning about markets and politics. There are very few programs Instill in students an appreciation for the power and universality of economic thinking.
The economics curriculum is what it is today because of decades of incremental and disjointed choices about topics and methods. It may have been defensible at the time, but the result is a course of study that leaves students unprepared to speak or write intellectually about economics.
We need Reboot. Even at this late hour, there are enough great economists in responsible positions within academia who can make a difference. It is time to remove the “dismal” from “dismal science” and rethink what we teach. We need to start with the core texts.
There is no universally best curriculum for all schools. Different programs may have different emphases, especially in specialized fields. However, there are some texts that have stood the test of time and provide deep insight. If I were in charge of designing a curriculum, these are the books I would build my program around:
Introduction to Economics. Econ 101 is the most important course in the curriculum. As an excellent economics educator, Paul Heine As I have discovered, we need to teach introductory economics classes as if they were the only classes our students would take. Show them the big picture. Give them the keys to unlock the secrets of wealth and poverty. Convey the wonder and breadth of economic thinking. If we do this well, it will not be their only class, but the first of many.
There are several good options for Economics 101 texts, but in my opinion, there is one that stands out above the rest. universal economics From basic topics like scarcity, property rights, and demand to advanced topics like price search strategies, interdependence, and even unemployment and inflation, two of the 20th century’s greatest economists guide readers through the subtleties of economic reasoning without excessive complexity or jargon.
Don’t get me wrong, this is not an easy book. It demands much more from the reader than Mankiw’s widely used introductory text. But it is worth the effort. No other text does a better job of teaching the fundamentals. If students take Econ 101 and then never take economics, they will know everything they need for practical purposes. And if they go on to do a minor, major, or graduate course, they will build a stronger foundation from this book than from any other book on the market today. As I wrote in Recent Reviews, universal economics “It should be required reading for both undergraduate and graduate students and a prerequisite for doctoral studies.”
Intermediate Economics. Most intermediate courses are taught as a watered-down doctoral seminar. The abstraction and lack of relevance leave students confused and unprepared to solve real-world problems. This is clearly a mistake. While we should encourage intermediate students to think more deeply about the assumptions and content of the workhorse model, we should never lose sight of the goal: to refine the analytical toolkit so that students are prepared to think like economists.
My favorite text at this level is by Steven Landsburg. Pricing theory and applicationsHirshliefer et al.’s Pricing theory and applicationsAnd David Friedman’s Price theory: Intermediate text. All of these give students a good look inside the models they learned in Econ 101, but without overwhelming them with math. They also maintain the overarching focus on problem solving. After a semester with one of these texts, students will be well on their way to becoming competent applied economists.
Advanced Economics. It doesn’t really matter whether you consider “advanced” to be the final (optional) step at the undergraduate level or the first (required) step at the graduate level. Instead, what matters is the focus. Advanced economics courses should help students cross the bridge from consuming economics to producing economics. That doesn’t necessarily mean academic papers. But it does mean sophisticated analysis of ongoing debates among economists and contemporary problems in markets and politics.
Avoid trendy texts like Mas-Colell and their imitations. If you need a flashy presentation, Varian and Krebs Better. But keep in mind that even at advanced levels, very few students need to know the abstract mathematics of preference relations or equilibrium existence proofs. Rigor should not be gained at the expense of relevance.
I recommend Gary Becker’s Economic theory And Jaffe et al. chicago price theory. Ideally, instructors will use both. Becker’s text covers many topics that Jaffe et al. does not cover. Jaffe et al. goes into more detail on overlapping topics. Together, these books will help students critique and build partial equilibrium models that are complex enough to gain meaningful insights.
mathematical economics. I dislike most mathematical economics texts. They are usually poor at explaining the relevance to practical economic reasoning. And they are usually very failed to root the model in economic intuition. A notable exception is Silberberg and Suen’s little-known book, last revised in 2000. Structure of economic analysis.
Any mathematical economics text will introduce and prove this to the reader. Envelope cleanup. Silverberg and Suen are among the few who explain why it is economically important. Although much of the presentation is old (economists rarely use linear programming and matrix algebra to solve models these days), the text still conveys the basics of constrained maximization and comparative statics well. Knowing these is essential to doing price theory at the highest level.
Accompanying text. A good general text to complement the above is McCloskey’s: Applied theory of price, Milton Friedman’s Price theoryAnd George Stigler’s Price theory. When students are stuck, sometimes a different way of presenting the material can emphasize the point. Reinforcing the core topics with relevant sections of these books can help build economic intuition. McCloskey’s book is especially valuable because the problems at the end of each chapter are excellent.
problem solving. If not you Gordon turlockThe only way to get good at economics is to solve a lot of problems. Economic thinking is simple, but applying it is not easy. It takes a lot of practice. See Khan’s. Price theory problem And De Meza and Osborne’s The problem with price theory For a thorough list of accessible yet challenging exercises, anyone interested in graduate school should do every problem in this book.
document. everything Waddell’s and Williams’s This is a list. This is a classic reading of economics that every advanced student and practitioner should know. Also highly recommended. Mulligan’s Recent papers, especially his Price Theory Perspectives on Externalities And his analysis of how public policy affects Opioid consumption. Finally, if my readers will forgive me for my self-promotion, I turn their attention to the following. Salter and CutsingerExplores the current state of price theory within the field of economics.
Fixing the economy will take a lot of work, but it’s worth it. These texts can help us get started. All we have to lose is our ignorance.
Alexander William Salter is the George G. Snyder Associate Professor of Economics at the Rawls School of Management, a research fellow in comparative economics at TTU’s Free Market Institute, a senior researcher at AIER’s Sound Money Project, and a state government fellow at Young Voices.
