IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/sajeco/v76y2008i4p749-764.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Neoclassical Theory And The Teaching Of Undergraduate Microeconomics

Author

Listed:
  • Mario Scerri

Abstract

This paper explores possible reasons for the long and enduring dominance of neoclassical theory over the undergraduate microeconomics textbook. It proposes that those very attributes of neoclassical microeconomics that raise serious theoretical misgivings constitute the basis for the current hegemony of the standard undergraduate textbook. It further discusses the effects of the standard text on the education of economists in developing countries and conditions of the entrenchment of this text in undergraduate teaching. Finally, it looks at the possibilities of the emergence of alternative textbooks both in the centre and in the periphery of the global academic map.

Suggested Citation

  • Mario Scerri, 2008. "Neoclassical Theory And The Teaching Of Undergraduate Microeconomics," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 76(4), pages 749-764, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:sajeco:v:76:y:2008:i:4:p:749-764
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1813-6982.2008.00217.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1813-6982.2008.00217.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1813-6982.2008.00217.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alex Van Der Merwe, 2006. "Identifying Some Constraints In First Year Economics Teaching And Learning At A Typical South African University Of Technology," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 74(1), pages 150-159, March.
    2. Kelvin J. Lancaster, 1966. "A New Approach to Consumer Theory," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 74(2), pages 132-132.
    3. Siegfried, John J, et al, 1991. "The Economics Major: Can and Should We Do Better Than a B Minus?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 81(2), pages 20-25, May.
    4. Stigler, George J & Becker, Gary S, 1977. "De Gustibus Non Est Disputandum," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 67(2), pages 76-90, March.
    5. Becker, Gary S, 1993. "Nobel Lecture: The Economic Way of Looking at Behavior," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 101(3), pages 385-409, June.
    6. Hendler, Reuven, 1975. "Lancaster's New Approach to Consumer Demand and Its Limitations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 65(1), pages 194-199, March.
    7. Richard R. Nelson, 1995. "Recent Evolutionary Theorizing about Economic Change," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 33(1), pages 48-90, March.
    8. Alex Van Der Merwe, 2007. "Using Blended Learning To Boost Motivation And Performance In Introductory Economics Modules," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 75(1), pages 125-135, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mario Scerri, 2012. "The introduction of the systems of innovation approach in economics curricula," International Journal of Technological Learning, Innovation and Development, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 5(1/2), pages 12-27.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Veisten, Knut, 2007. "Contingent valuation controversies: Philosophic debates about economic theory," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 204-232, April.
    2. Gordon Burt, 1997. "Cultural Convergence in Historical Cultural Space-Time," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 21(4), pages 291-305, December.
    3. McVey, Marty Jay, 1996. "Valuing quality differentiated grains from a total logistics perspective," ISU General Staff Papers 1996010108000012326, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    4. Victor Ginsburgh, 2013. "Mark Blaug and the economics of the arts," Chapters, in: Marcel Boumans & Matthias Klaes (ed.), Mark Blaug: Rebel with Many Causes, chapter 15, pages 208-224, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    5. Roger D. Congleton, 2020. "Governance by true believers: supreme duties with and without totalitarianism," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 31(1), pages 111-141, March.
    6. Anne Bretteville-Jensen, 2006. "Drug Demand – Initiation, Continuation and Quitting," De Economist, Springer, vol. 154(4), pages 491-516, December.
    7. Daniel Urrutiaguer, 2002. "Quality Judgements and Demand for French Public Theatre," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 26(3), pages 185-202, August.
    8. Jimena Hurtado, 2005. "The Utilitarian Foundations Of The Economic Approach To Human Behavior," Documentos CEDE 3633, Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Economía, CEDE.
    9. Jonathan D. Ketcham & Nicolai V. Kuminoff & Christopher A. Powers, 2016. "Estimating the Heterogeneous Welfare Effects of Choice Architecture: An Application to the Medicare Prescription Drug Insurance Market," NBER Working Papers 22732, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Cherchye, Laurens & De Rock, Bram & Vermeulen, Frederic, 2015. "A simple identification strategy for Gary Becker’s time allocation model," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 187-190.
    11. Jacobs Martin, 2016. "Accounting for Changing Tastes: Approaches to Explaining Unstable Individual Preferences," Review of Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 67(2), pages 121-183, August.
    12. Thomas Grebel, 2011. "Innovation and Health," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 14375.
    13. Kaleb S. Jada & Mequanint B. Melesse & Marrit Berg, 2023. "The effects of safety certification and nutrition messaging on the demand for nutritionally enhanced food in urban Ethiopia," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 15(2), pages 395-409, April.
    14. Justin P. Johnson & David P. Myatt, 2006. "On the Simple Economics of Advertising, Marketing, and Product Design," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(3), pages 756-784, June.
    15. Maurizio Caserta & Tiziana Cuccia, 2001. "The Supply of Arts Labour : Towards a Dynamic Approach," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 25(3), pages 185-201, August.
    16. Anisa Dwi Utami & Harianto Harianto & Bayu Krisnamurthi, 2023. "Exploring the pattern of price interdependence in rice market in Indonesia in the presence of quality differential," Cogent Economics & Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(1), pages 2178123-217, December.
    17. Ruttan, Vernon W., 2006. "Social science knowledge and induced institutional innovation: an institutional design perspective," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 2(3), pages 249-272, December.
    18. Swait, J. & de Bekker-Grob, E.W., 2022. "A discrete choice model implementing gist-based categorization of alternatives, with applications to patient preferences for cancer screening and treatment," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    19. Wayne DeSarbo & Kamel Jedidi & Joel Steckel, 1991. "A stochastic multidimensional scaling procedure for the empirical determination of convex indifference curves for preference/choice analysis," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 56(2), pages 279-307, June.
    20. Kuklys, W. & Robeyns, I., 2004. "Sen’s Capability Approach to Welfare Economics," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0415, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:sajeco:v:76:y:2008:i:4:p:749-764. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/essaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.