 Reforming the undergraduate macroeconomics curriculum: the case for a thorough treatment of accounting relationshipsJohannes Schmidt International Journal of Pluralism and Economics Education, 2017, vol. 8, issue 1, 42-67 Abstract: The paper gives an overview of the important macroeconomic accounting relationships and the so-called 'balance mechanics' that should be systematically treated in an undergraduate macroeconomics course. It is argued that a mastery of these relationships is in itself a good basis for understanding economic events and debates. Furthermore, these relationships give a solid foundation for a pluralistic teaching approach, a comparison of different models, and a critical evaluation of economic policy proposals. This is shown by looking closer at three examples: first, the problem of coordination between saving and investment can be made much clearer when balance mechanics and accounting relationships are taken into account; second, a related problem of economic policy - the case for (or against) a funded pension system - is evaluated; and third, it is shown how balance mechanics can be used as a consistency check for economic models. Keywords: balance mechanics; saving-investment relationship; accounting; macroeconomics curriculum; economic education; undergraduate teaching; interest rate; model evaluation; pension system; funding; pluralism. (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ids:ijplur:v:8:y:2017:i:1:p:42-67 Access Statistics for this article More articles in International Journal of Pluralism and Economics Education from Inderscience Enterprises Ltd |
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