Making microeconomics less ideological

Michael Cauvel, Aaron Pacitti and Jon D. Wisman
Additional contact information
Michael Cauvel: N/A
Aaron Pacitti: N/A
Jon D. Wisman: N/A

Advances in Economics Education, 2024, vol. 3, issue 2, 188-203

Abstract: The standard introductory course in microeconomics presents a sophisticated set of tools for understanding the dynamics of markets, which are of central importance in all contemporary societies. Unfortunately, most textbooks for this course inadequately address, and frequently distort, the following six issues critical to students’ understanding of economic society: the nature of work and its relation to utility; social interdependence in decision-making; economic growth as the principal objective of modern socio-economic systems; the overall importance of market externalities; the pervasiveness of market power and its impact on consumers; and the relationship between property rights and economic justice. The outcome is that students are often left with the impression that unfettered markets necessarily deliver economic efficiency and just outcomes, resulting in a pedagogy that serves as ideology, legitimating prevailing and unequal social conditions. This article is intended to highlight these ideological aspects of the standard microeconomics curriculum and to offer professors some relatively simple strategies for addressing these issues without the need to significantly alter the curriculum.

Keywords: microeconomic education; realism of assumptions; ideology; social role of microeconomics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A11 A14 A20 B40 D00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.elgaronline.com/view/journals/aee/3/2/article-p188.xml (application/pdf)
Restricted Access

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:elg:aeejrn:v:3:y:2024:i:2:p188-203

Access Statistics for this article

Advances in Economics Education is currently edited by Peter Docherty

More articles in Advances in Economics Education from Edward Elgar Publishing
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Phillip Thompson ().