What Economists Teach and What Economists Do

David Colander

The Journal of Economic Education, 2005, vol. 36, issue 3, 249-260

Abstract: Fifty years ago what was taught in the principles of economics course reflected reasonably well what economists did in their research. That, however, is no longer the case; today what economists teach has a more nuanced relation to what they do. The reason is that the economics profession and the textbooks have evolved differently. The author addresses the implications of the changes that have occurred in the profession for the way economics is taught and the way economics is presented in the micro principles textbooks. First, he summarizes the changes he sees happening in the profession. Second, he discusses the stories that the principles textbooks tell in micro. Third, he discusses how those stories might change to reflect better what economists currently do.

Date: 2005
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (20)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.3200/JECE.36.3.249-260 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

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:taf:jeduce:v:36:y:2005:i:3:p:249-260

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/VECE20

DOI: 10.3200/JECE.36.3.249-260

Access Statistics for this article

The Journal of Economic Education is currently edited by William Walstad

More articles in The Journal of Economic Education from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().