The riddle of the use of impossible examples in microeconomics textbooks

Emmanuelle Benicourt (), Sophie Jallais () and Camille Noûs ()
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Emmanuelle Benicourt: CRIISEA - Centre de Recherche sur les Institutions, l'Industrie et les Systèmes Économiques d'Amiens - UR UPJV 3908 - UPJV - Université de Picardie Jules Verne
Sophie Jallais: PHARE - Philosophie, Histoire et Analyse des Représentations Économiques - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne
Camille Noûs: Laboratoire Cogitamus = Cogitamus Laboratory

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Abstract: This paper examines the use in microeconomics textbooks of what we call 'impossible examples', looking specifically at certain examples employed in chapters dealing with the production process or markets for factors of production. After showing that such examples are mostly to be found in textbooks for beginners, it asks what beginner students can possibly learn through them, taking the case of a concept (the marginal product), a law (the law of diminishing marginal product), and a theory (the income theory of distribution). The use of impossible examples in such textbooks appears to be a riddle, since, by using them to introduce, present, or explain parts of neoclassical theory, authors are in effect teaching a fake and inconsistent version of that theory.

Keywords: Economics education; microeconomics textbooks; examples; marginal product; theory of distribution (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-12-15
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Published in Real-World Economics Review, 2021, 98, pp.2-22

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03485164

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